[HN Gopher] A New type of web hacking technique: DoubleClickjacking
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       A New type of web hacking technique: DoubleClickjacking
        
       Author : shinzub
       Score  : 103 points
       Date   : 2025-01-14 04:44 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.paulosyibelo.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.paulosyibelo.com)
        
       | gnabgib wrote:
       | Title: _DoubleClickjacking: A New Era of UI Redressing_
        
       | efortis wrote:
       | I think the suggested mitigation will only work when the user
       | double-clicks without moving the mouse.
       | 
       | So I'd try adding a small timeout when the tab is visible:
       | document.addEventListener("visibilitychange", () => {         if
       | (!document.hidden)           setTimeout(enableButtons, 200)
       | })
        
         | efortis wrote:
         | and `disableButtons` on `document.hidden`
        
       | IshKebab wrote:
       | Eh, it's hardly seamless, and double clicking is extremely
       | uncommon on the web so that would be a big red flag.
        
         | giantrobot wrote:
         | Double clicking on the web is extremely common with older less
         | technically adept users. This same cohort is also the most
         | susceptible to scams.
        
           | waltwalther wrote:
           | This. I have told my eighty-year-old parents this many times
           | over the years, but it doesn't seem to stick.
        
             | Moru wrote:
             | I see a lot of people doubleclicking on the web. Both young
             | and old.
        
             | NotYourLawyer wrote:
             | I've tried to explain it many times too, but I can't really
             | articulate a good, comprehensive rule for when to single
             | and when to double click.
        
               | cobbal wrote:
               | Another complicating factor that many less-tech-literate
               | don't have a good internal model for is window focus.
               | I've seen several people try and single-click on a not
               | focused web button, only for nothing to happen. When they
               | click again, the button is activated. They then learn to
               | always double click that button.
               | 
               | Having a mental model of "this button needs to be double
               | clicked" gets them the result they want, even if that's
               | not a very accurate reflection of the computer.
        
               | Pxtl wrote:
               | When you're on windows and not in the browser, you
               | double-click to launch a file or program in the Explorer
               | (which also is what runs the desktop). Single-click is
               | select.
               | 
               | So, the rule:
               | 
               | List of files on your computer or desktop? Double-click.
               | Otherwise? Don't.
        
               | NotYourLawyer wrote:
               | What if I'm opening an email in Outlook? What if I'm
               | looking at something in Control Panel? (That one's a
               | trick question, since the answer has changed in modern
               | Windows versions.)
        
               | Pxtl wrote:
               | I'd say don't do that. Who reads emails?
               | 
               | Although seriously, I find I never break out of the
               | preview in Outlook email. The only spot in Outlook where
               | I really _need_ to double-click is the calendar. Which is
               | annoying.
        
               | wat10000 wrote:
               | In theory: if you're clicking on a UI element that has
               | some notion of being selected, then a single-click
               | selects it, and you need a double-click to take an action
               | on it. If there's no notion of selection, then a single
               | click takes an action.
               | 
               | In practice: adherence to this ranges from perfect to
               | abysmal. And users who don't understand the computer well
               | may not know how to think about whether a given UI
               | element is selectable or not.
        
           | bangaladore wrote:
           | Another obvious case of double click is to select all text in
           | a given area. This one is a bit more obscure though.
           | 
           | Edit: Actually that's generally I guess triple click. Double
           | to select a word.
        
         | Etheryte wrote:
         | I couldn't even begin to count how many bug reports I've seen
         | over the years that start with "when I accidentally double-
         | click foo, bar happens". It might not be an intentional usage
         | pattern, sure, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen a lot.
        
           | kevinsync wrote:
           | Yeah, I have no data beyond anecdotal to back this up, but I
           | witness A LOT of people double-clicking everything,
           | regardless of what it is. I assume it's because they only got
           | so far in "computer" as to learn "click + drag to move,
           | double-click to open a program or file". Link on a web page?
           | I want to open that!
        
         | doublerabbit wrote:
         | > double clicking is extremely uncommon on the web so that
         | would be a big red flag.
         | 
         | You've never had a slow internet connection have you? I've seen
         | double clicking from all users in the office. Comes from
         | frustration.
         | 
         | How many times have you tried to open an application; for it
         | not open? So you click the icon again only for two windows to
         | split open?
         | 
         | Young, old, even techs. It's not as uncommon as you think.
        
           | portaouflop wrote:
           | I've even triple or quadruple clicked sometimes with
           | disastrous results
        
         | uhoh-itsmaciek wrote:
         | Google Drive uses it as an interaction pattern. I find that
         | baffling, but while uncommon, it's not totally absent. And as
         | others have pointed out, many users carry over their
         | expectation of having to double-click from desktop interfaces.
        
         | kazinator wrote:
         | Web browsers and the applications on them have become extremely
         | memory hungry. Memory management pauses are common and people
         | click multiple times irately.
        
         | recursive wrote:
         | I double click to select text all the time. Get your flags
         | ready.
        
           | bangaladore wrote:
           | I'd laugh if an effective way to present this is:
           | 
           | CAPTCHA:
           | 
           | Please copy `qwertyuiopasdfhkl`
           | 
           | Into here `<textbox>`
           | 
           | Edit: Quick (ai mockup) concept... https://imgur.com/mc0IdEA
           | Obviously it would be most effective with a longer string
           | though.
        
       | sharpshadow wrote:
       | New fear unlocked lazy cookie consent banners.
        
       | yellow_lead wrote:
       | Am I mistaken or does this require the user to allow pop-ups?
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | Default configuration for most browsers is to allow popups if
         | it was initiated by a user action.
        
       | krunck wrote:
       | Browser content should never be able to modify the configuration
       | of my desktop window layout by opening a new window. There I said
       | it.
        
         | NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
         | Agreed, but I think this was a workaround for early web apps
         | that existed in the primitive days. You'd need two webpages of
         | the same site open to complete some task, but the apps weren't
         | sophisticated enough to do that within a single window/tab.
         | Once they did it back then, now too many web apps and workflows
         | would suffer if they just killed that functionality entirely,
         | too many users would scream.
        
         | KTibow wrote:
         | TFA doesn't use separate windows, only separate tabs.
        
       | maxrmk wrote:
       | This is clever, and I got a good laugh out of their example
       | video. The demo UI of "Double click here" isn't very convincing -
       | I bet there's a version of this that gets people to double click
       | consistently though.
        
         | bee_rider wrote:
         | Hmm. I guess it is never impossible that there's a version of
         | something that will trick people consistently. But, I'm kinda
         | struggling to recall a time I've needed to double click on a
         | website.
         | 
         | Actually the double-click action is pretty rare nowadays,
         | right? In particular, I use it a lot to select a word in a
         | terminal, but most of the time when I am getting UI
         | instructions it is from a website about how to use the website
         | itself, and since that's a website it has to be abstract enough
         | to also make sense for mobile users.
         | 
         | Telling people to double click is, I think, mostly dead.
        
           | chatmasta wrote:
           | It doesn't need to be a literal double click. It could be
           | something like a CAPTCHA "confirm you're human," where you
           | click once, it appears to load, and then you click a confirm
           | button. Do it fast enough and it might appear like a double
           | click.
           | 
           | Not sure this would work with the exploit though.
        
           | foobazgt wrote:
           | My mother constantly struggles between when to double click
           | or not after decades of using computers. This is probably an
           | issue that will die out with her generation, though.
           | 
           | Entirely separate, a common failure mode of dying mice is
           | that they start generating spurious clicks. I've had a couple
           | of logitechs do this to me. And the thing about scams is you
           | can often legit make money off of very low success rates.
        
             | JadeNB wrote:
             | > Entirely separate, a common failure mode of dying mice is
             | that they start generating spurious clicks.
             | 
             | Speaking of things dying out, it's been so long since I
             | used anything but a trackpad that I thought at first this
             | was some strange claim about rodents!
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | Google drive and similar sites use double click for folders
           | to open similar to a regular OS would. Single click tends to
           | show some metadata where the double click does the actual
           | navigation.
           | 
           | it pisses me off
        
         | chatmasta wrote:
         | The exploit would be more effective if it obfuscated the UI on
         | the authorization (victim) page. Right now, even if you double
         | click a convincing button, it's extremely obvious that you just
         | got duped (no pun intended).
         | 
         | Sure, maybe the attacker can abuse the access privileges before
         | you have a chance to revoke them. But it's not exactly a smooth
         | clickjacking.
         | 
         | I'd start by changing the dimensions of the parent window
         | (prior to redirecting to victim) to the size of the button on
         | the target page - no need to show everything around it
         | (assuming you can make it scroll to the right place). And if
         | the OAuth redirects to the attacker page, it can restore the
         | size to the original.
         | 
         | Back in the day, this trick was used for clickjacking Digg
         | upvotes.
        
           | joshfraser wrote:
           | You can change the visibility of the target page so they
           | wouldn't know
        
       | bangaladore wrote:
       | Bit off topic, but what's the reasoning behind messing with the
       | native browser scroll here. Almost gets me motion sick when
       | scrolling through this article.
        
         | technion wrote:
         | Marketing people have demanded this on many websites sites I've
         | been involved with. Don't ask me why.
        
           | dmix wrote:
           | What is it? Smooth scrolling?
        
             | bangaladore wrote:
             | From the html:
             | 
             | // SmoothScroll for websites v1.2.1
        
               | braiamp wrote:
               | And this is why NoScript is a required extension. Matrix
               | if you use Chromium based browsers.
        
               | hombre_fatal wrote:
               | You'd think the library would first check for macOS/iOS
               | which already has far superior smooth scrolling.
        
           | ndriscoll wrote:
           | Maybe the industry should develop a secret header we can all
           | have our browser send to disable this sort of thing. Like
           | `X-Shibboleet: true`.
        
           | btown wrote:
           | My hypothesis on this is that marketers who have personal
           | MacBooks but are forced to use Windows computers at work,
           | with mice with notched scroll wheels, find JS-driven smooth
           | scrolling to be superior to the native snapping experience
           | they see at work on many websites. But it wreaks havoc on
           | people who already have computers with native high-resolution
           | trackpads. Alas, the folks at big companies care more about
           | their at-work than at-home experience, and it's been cargo-
           | culted to smaller companies now as well. The conversation
           | "detect if there is indeed a trackpad being used" never even
           | comes up.
        
         | packtreefly wrote:
         | It is the height of irony to me that a blog post complaining
         | about clickjacking is presented on a website that is guilty of
         | scrolljacking.
        
           | thoughtpalette wrote:
           | I thought the same. Glad to see it called out here. Maybe
           | that's the post for next week...
        
             | mediumsmart wrote:
             | the scrolling is almost normal in librewolf - but that is
             | with privacy badger blocking 14 trackers on that page ...
        
       | gwbas1c wrote:
       | I'm a little skeptical that this is a real exploit.
       | 
       | When I watched the Salesforce video, _the exploit was
       | demonstrated by pointing the browser at a file on disk,_ not on a
       | public website. I also don 't understand the "proof," IE,
       | something showed up in the salesforce inbox, but I don't
       | understand how that shows that the user was hacked. It appears to
       | be an automated email from an identity provider.
       | 
       | I also don't understand when the popup is shown, and what the
       | element is when the popup is closed.
       | 
       | Some slow-mo with highlighting on the fake window, and the "proof
       | of exploit," might make this easier to understand and demonstrate
        
         | akersten wrote:
         | It's also not a novel threat model. For example prior art, the
         | browser confirmation dialogs in Firefox at least don't enable
         | their buttons until the window has had focus for 500ms or so.
         | Possibly to avoid inadvertently unintentionally clicking "run"
         | on a recently downloaded item, but it solves for this too and I
         | wouldn't be shocked if this was on their mind too.
         | 
         | If I were running some site where pressing a button does some
         | kind of auth that I really want a user to read, that seems like
         | a reasonable mitigation compared to the hyperbole found in the
         | article:
         | 
         | > This technique seemingly affects almost every website
        
       | Vortigaunt wrote:
       | Thankfully this shouldn't become a large problem, because
       | websites simply don't load that quick
        
         | joshfraser wrote:
         | It could be preloaded
        
       | joshfraser wrote:
       | Back in 2013 I discovered that you could use clickjacking to
       | trick someone into buying anything you wanted from Amazon
       | (assuming they were signed in). It took them almost a year to fix
       | the issue. They never paid me a bounty.
       | 
       | https://onlineaspect.com/2014/06/06/clickjacking-amazon-com/
        
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       (page generated 2025-01-17 23:01 UTC)