Clickjacking is a type of cyberattack that deceives users into believing they're clicking on one thing while they're actually clicking on something else. Also known as UI (User Interface) Redressing where users believe they are using the standard UI of a web page, but actually, that is a concealed UI in control. The hidden UI takes a different behavior when consumers click something they think is safe.
This attack's final objective is to lure victims into disclosing their PII (Personally Identifiable Information) or even infect their devices with malware. The real objectives can be almost anything that can be done through web pages. This includes blackhat hacker behaviors such as installing malware and stealing credentials or even conducting a ransomware attack on infected devices. Benign activities like raising click counts to increase advertisement income on sites, getting likes and views on Facebook and YouTube are also possible.
How will you prevent your website’s users from getting click jacked?
Web developers can use one of these two methods: -
- Client-side techniques include Frame Busting, which is the most prevalent one. Such techniques can be useful in some situations, but they are not recommended because they can be readily circumvented.
- X-Frame-Options is the most often used server-side approach. Security experts advise using server-side approaches to combat clickjacking.
So, how does anyone get click jacked?
First, any attacker produces a visually appealing website that offers visitors a free trip to any overseas country. In the background, the attacker is actually checking if the users are signed into the banking site via cookies stored in the browser. If so, the attacker opens the page that allows for fund transfers, inserting the attacker's bank data into the form using query parameters. The bank transfer page appears in an invisible iframe above the free trip page, with the "Confirm Transfer" button perfectly positioned over the user-visible "Receive Free Trip" button. The user arrives at the website and selects the "Book My Free Trip" option. In actuality, the user is clicking on the "Confirm Transfer" button on the unseen iframe. The funds are sent to the attacker. The user is taken to a website where they might learn more about the free trip (not knowing about what happened actually in the background).
How to check whether your website is vulnerable to clickjacking?
Create an HTML page and try to incorporate a sensitive page from your website in an iframe to see if your site is vulnerable to clickjacking. This is common behavior in a clickjacking assault, it's critical to run the test code on a different web server.
<html>
<head>
<title>Clickjacking Cyberattack Vulnerability Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<p><b>Website is Vulnerable to Clickjacking Cyberattack.!<b></p>
<iframe src="<entire website link>" width="300" height="300"></iframe>
</body>
</html>
In a browser, open the HTML page and assess it as follows:
- The content of your sensitive page is vulnerable to clickjacking if the words “Website is Vulnerable to Clickjacking Cyberattack.!” appear underneath it.
- The page is not vulnerable to the basic kind of clickjacking if you simply see the words “Website is Vulnerable to Clickjacking Cyberattack.!” and do not view the content of your sensitive page.
Additional testing is required to determine which anti-clickjacking measures are employed on the page and whether they may be circumvented by attackers.
How web developers could use the X-Frame-Options HTTP Header?
It allows an application to declare whether frame usage is merely banned, as indicated by the DENY value, or whether frame use is permitted, as shown by the SAMEORIGIN and ALLOW-FROM values. This header option is supported by most current browsers. X-Frame-Options your web developers can use:
X-Frame-Options: DENY
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
X-Frame-Options: ALLOW-FROM <entire website link>
The ultimate solution for addressing clickjacking vulnerability
CSP (Content Security Policy) allows the developers to disable frame usage entirely or define where it is permitted. CSP isn't supported by all browsers, and a few browser plugins and add-ons may be able to get around it. Browsers are expected to favor CSP's directives if both the X-Frame-Options header and CSP frame-ancestors are utilized, however not all do. Defense-in-depth is a smart practice, and there's nothing wrong with utilizing all three defenses on your websites because none of them are flawless. Web application developers can utilize these CSP frame-ancestors setting- to prevent clickjacking:
Content-Security-Policy: frame-ancestors 'none'
Content-Security-Policy: frame-ancestors 'self'
Content-Security-Policy: frame-ancestors <website link>
To know more about web development practices to safeguard your websites, contact Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.