Thursday, May 13, 2004

The following is exceptionally unusual. For many years post
Outlook Express 4 has been an impossibility to target html or
remote sites directly into the 'window' of an Outlook Express
mail message. That means all links [your basic href] would
invoke the browser accompanied by Outlook Express, one Internet
Explorer, and open content therein.

The following odd-combination 'fluke' returns us to pre-Outlook
Express 5 days by opening both remote and local content inside
the actual mail message itself:

[screenshot: http://www.malware.com/poa.png 242KB]

The mail message itself then becomes the browser. Needless to
say that the immediate thought turns to the current stream of
activity ; that being 'phishing'. There is no browser
involvement, there is no address bar and any one of previously
discussed url spoof mechanisms can be deployed to further
substantiate the ruse:

<BASE href=http://www.malware.com target=_top>
<A href="http://www.microsoft.com">http://www.malware.com</A>

Notes:

1. Interestingly replying to the mail message will fill in the
href with whatever is stated in the base href
2. about: url protocol functions
3. All content is still processed in the security zone
applicable to the mail clients settings
4. More technical in-depth possibilities can be examined at a
future date

End Call

--
http://www.malware.com

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