Bugtraq mailing list archives

Re: Defeating Citibank Virtual Keyboard protection using screenshot method


From: Florian Weimer <fw () deneb enyo de>
Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 23:45:58 +0200

* David Gillett:

But your point above:
"without installing malware on the victim host"

Although true on some level, is bogus for the purpose of 
this work, as it being written makes an automatic 
assumption on working only after malware is installed.

  The principle of "defence in depth" is that each security 
measure adds to overall security by providing protections that
continue to operate even if other defences have been breached.

Isn't it more like combining several things which aren't
unconditionally secure by themselves, in the hope that the result is
something you can actually live with?

  The demonstration that Citibank's "security measure" can be
relied upon ONLY in the case where no other breach has allowed 
malware to be installed on the client machine is thus a proof
by example that it does not actually provide such defence in
depth, and in fact for far too many end users cannot be safely
assumed to provide any security at all.  

Hard to tell.  What if the measure helps to prevent customer
confidence from eroding any further?  I fear you need to do something
equally visible against the very visible threat of fake web pages.
Otherwise, no one will take you seriously, no matter how well your
fraud management processes work.


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