5 ms·
Another thing that's bitten me from time to time is what might be called FocusNabbing: where you're entering a password into one site and something else steals
by biot 12y ago
Another thing that's bitten me from time to time is what might be called FocusNabbing: where you're entering a password into one site and something else steals the focus, so now you're potentially typing part of your credentials there. It could be some other application running in your OS showing a modal alert or some other tab suddenly stealing focus (looking at you, Google Calendar).
While this attack vector is far more difficult to exploit, there should be protection against this kind of focus stealing. If your browser detects that you currently have the focus in a password field, it should block any attempt to switch the focus away to something else. The same should apply to the OS itself.
- electronous 12y agoAlmost, but not quite - focus stealing is an anti-pattern, full-stop. It shouldn't be feasible to do it in any context.
- gizmo686 12y agoFocusnabbing is (currently) a non-issue at the OS level because of keyloggers. At least on X11, it is possible for a program to capture the key events of any other program (in the same session), even if the other program is running as a different user (including root). I do not know if other systems are simmilarly vulnerable.