Paper: HTML Form Protocol Attack

Abstract: This paper describes how some HTML browsers can be tricked through the use of HTML forms into sending more or less arbitrary data to any TCP port. This can be used to send commands to servers using ASCII based protocols like SMTP, NNTP, POP3, IMAP, IRC, and others. By sending HTML email to unsuspecting users or using a trojan HTML page, an attacker might be able to send mail or post Usenet News through servers normally not accessible to him. In special cases an attacker might be able to do other harm, e.g. deleting mail from a POP3 mailbox.

This paper (PDF) was published on the Bugtraq mailing list on 2001-08-15.

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