clipped from: www.squarefree.com   

I discovered arbitrary code execution holes in Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera that involve human reaction time. One version of the attack works like this:


The secret word fills the blank in the sentence 'If ____ web developers would use alternate text correctly!'  It is all lowercase.

The page contains a captcha displaying the word "only" and asks you to type the word to verify that you are a human. As soon as you type 'n', the site attempts to install software, resulting in a security dialog. When you type 'y' at the end of the word, you trigger the 'Yes' button in the dialog. I made a demo of this attack for Firefox and Mozilla.


Another form of the attack involves convincing the user to double-click a certain spot on the screen. This spot happens to be the location where the 'Yes' button will appear. The first click triggers the dialog; the second click lands on the 'Yes' button. I made a demo of this attack for Firefox and Mozilla.


These types of attack work on any security dialog that can be triggered by untrusted content. The attack is most useful in a dialog where one of the buttons means "Yes, let this untrusted content run arbitrary code". Firefox has such a dialog in the form of the extension installation (XPI) dialog. Similarly, Internet Explorer has the ActiveX installation dialog and Opera has an "Open" button for downloaded executables. Programs other than browsers might also be vulnerable.