Website security vulnerability: Overlooking a common implementation error can expose your sites to harmful clickjacking attacks
In the realm of cybersecurity, protecting user data and preventing unauthorised access is paramount. One such vulnerability that has been a concern for many years is clickjacking. First described by Robert Hansen and Jeremiah Grossman in 2008, clickjacking is a technique that tricks users into clicking unintended links or buttons, potentially exposing confidential information or taking control of their computers.
X-Frame-Options, a method to protect against clickjacking, has been adopted by all modern browsers. This mechanism prevents browsers from rendering content in a frame or iframe, thereby preventing clickjacking attacks if an iframe can't be loaded in the browser and overlaid on the legitimate page. However, the use of multiple X-Frame-Options in the response headers can cause a common implementation error, making web applications vulnerable to clickjacking attacks.
The Safari 7, tested with Safari 7.1.7, has addressed this issue, ensuring that multiple X-Frame-Options do not cause vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, this fix does not extend to older Safari browsers, making them potentially vulnerable to clickjacking attacks. Some browsers, such as Safari browser version 6.0.5, may consider the header item 'X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN, SAMEORIGIN' as invalid, making the X-Frame-Options feature ineffective and potentially allowing clickjacking attacks.
Browser engines combine multiple X-Frame-Options items in the response headers by appending each subsequent field-value to the first. This combination can lead to a situation where the X-Frame-Options header contains more than one item, increasing the risk of clickjacking attacks. Popular and big websites can also fall victim to this implementation error, making them susceptible to clickjacking attacks.
It is important to note that the issue of multiple X-Frame-Options in the response headers causing vulnerabilities to clickjacking attacks is not limited to inexperienced developers. Several domains from one website in the Alexa Top 20 have been found to have this issue.
To mitigate this risk, it is advisable for those in charge to check whether the response headers contain more than one X-Frame-Options header when deploying X-Frame-Options to protect against a clickjacking attack. The RFC 7034 states that only three valid values for X-Frame-Options are DENY, SAMEORIGIN, and ALLOW FROM, and they are mutually exclusive.
While popular websites from the Alexa Top 20, such as reddit.com, have been found to send a single X-Frame-Options header with SAMEORIGIN, the presence of multiple headers in the response cannot be ruled out. Therefore, it is crucial to regularly audit and update response headers to ensure they do not contain multiple X-Frame-Options headers, thereby maintaining robust protection against clickjacking attacks.
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