TUCoPS :: Unix :: General :: imute-1.htm

InterMute junk filter proxy vulnerability
Vulnerability

    interMute

Affected

    Those running interMute

Description

    John Temples found following.  interMute is a junk  filter/privacy
    enhancer for web  browsers.  It  runs as either  a privileged Java
    applet within your browser,  or as a standalone  Java application.
    interMute operates as a proxy  server listening on port 4444,  and
    is meant  to operate  dedicated to  a single  user.   It correctly
    rejects any service  requests from IP  addresses not on  the local
    host.  However, it has no mechanism to determine whether  requests
    coming from the local host  originated from the browsing user,  or
    some  other  user.   The  interMute  proxy  has a "home page" from
    which the user can configure it and view filtering statistics  for
    the current session.  A local  user on a UNIX host can  connect to
    another  user's  interMute  proxy,  giving  him  full control over
    interMute.  Thus various attacks and intrusions are possible:

        1) The sites which were acted upon by interMute are listed  in
           the "statistics"  area, thus  revealing part  of the user's
           browsing history;
        2) interMute can be configured to chain to another proxy, thus
           allowing all browsing activity to be redirected and  logged
           without the user's knowledge;
        3) interMute can be configured to load a home page which could
           contain hostile Java and/or JavaScript code;
        4) Various  denial  of   service  attacks  are  possible    by
           reconfiguring interMute's filters.

Solution

    Nothing yet.

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