Is Clickjacking a Serious Threat?

Posted at February 14, 2009

ZDnet and other technical news sites have reported that clickjacking -- a potentially serious threat -- can affect any browser.

What is Clickjacking

Briefly, clickjacking is accomplished by a malicious page hiding behind what appears to be a safe page. When you click an item on the supposedly safe page, your computer is clickjacked by malicious code which then hijacks your pc's accessories or other components. This occurs without your knowledge.

Generally, webcams are hijacked, but clickjacking is not limited to affecting a cam. For example, your sound system or microphone can be exploited, or your computer can be taken over in other ways.

Adobe's Flash Player was especially vulnerable to clickjacking, but Adobe has come out with a fix to address the issue.

What Browsers are Affected?

Clickjacking is a cross-browser malicious code, which affects virtually all Internet browsers. It cannot be quickly fixed by disabling javascript.

A "No Script" add-on that works with Firefox is the only known solution.

Problems with the Clickjacking Fix

After using No Script for a week or so, I disabled it because it made web surfing a chore. Every site I visited was blocked to some degree because of YouTube videos, javascript coding or ads installed on the page. For instance, the following were all blocked by No Script:

Google Analytics
Pepperjam network
Peelaway Ads
Voxant's newsroom
Chitika
and many, many more (see the partial list of affiliate programs and other utilities blocked by No Script).

Google's Adsense is one of the few advertising networks that are automatically whitelisted by the No Script add-on. Most of the others will need to be approved manually. It is doubtful that the average Internet user will whitelist advertising networks.

If clickjacking is indeed a serious threat and script blocking solutions are the only way to fight back, then I can see online advertising taking a big hit. Adserver Plus, Doubleclick and other big ad networks were blocked by the No Script add-on.

Conclusion: Maybe the Threat is Overrated

My web browsing experience is back up to speed since I've disabled No Script and so far I haven't been hit by any type of clickjacking activities. Perhaps the threat is not as serious as some would claim.

The NotGuru blog has posted some videos that show exactly how clickjacking works and how to install fixes.