Paper: Socket Capable Browser Plugins Result In Transparent Proxy Abuse
Abstract
"Transparent proxies allow organizations to influence and monitor the traffic
from its users without their knowledge
or participation. Transparent proxies act as intermediaries between a user and
end destination, and aren't generally
apparent to users sitting behind them. Enterprises, Hotels, and Internet
Service Providers often use transparent proxy
products to lower bandwidth consumption,speed up page loads for their users,
and for monitoring and filtering of web
surfing. When certain transparent proxy architectures are in use an attacker
can achieve a partial Same Origin Policy
Bypass resulting in access to any host reachable by the proxy via the use of
client plug-in technologies (such as Flash,
Applets, etc) with socket capabilities. This write up will describe this
architecture, how it may be abused by Flash,
its existence in various network layouts, and mitigations."
Paper Link:
http://www.thesecuritypractice.com/the_security_practice/2009/03/socket-capable-browser-plugins-result-in-transparent-proxy-abuse.html
Regards,
- Robert