Home / Blogs

Facebook Apps on Any Website: A Clever Move? Or a Security Nightmare?

Fergie

Well, given the amount of malicious JavaScript, malware, and other possibilities to use Facebook (and other similar social networking platforms) for abuse, I certainly wouldn't categorize this news as a "clever move".

The announcement says, in part, that:

...JavaScript client library allows you to make Facebook API calls from any web site and makes it easy to create Ajax Facebook applications. Since the library does not require any server-side code on your server, you can now create a Facebook application that can be hosted on any web site that serves static HTML. An application that uses this client library should be registered as an iframe type. This applies to either iframe Facebook apps that users access through the Facebook web site or apps that users access directly on the app's own web sites. Almost all Facebook APIs are supported.

In fact, I foresee this as an extraordinarily short-sighted move with far-reaching security implications — which will allow the levels of malicious abuse to reach new heights.

In fact, minor annoyances such as this may become fond memories, as this new "feature" will allow miscreants to create much more malicious functionality.

So, this is a forecast placeholder for me — we'll have to look back on my prediction at some point in the future to see if I'm right, or not.

By Fergie, Advanced Threats Researcher, Emerging Threats & Operational Intelligence. Visit the blog maintained by Fergie here.

Related topics: Malware, Security, Web

WEEKLY WRAP — Get CircleID's Weekly Summary Report by Email:

Comments

To post comments, please login or create an account.

Related Blogs

Related News

Topics

Industry Updates – Sponsored Posts

MarkMonitor to Exhibit at Internet Tech Policy Exhibition and Reception to be Held on Capitol Hill

Verisign to Award New Infrastructure Research Grants

Nixu SNS 2.5 Series Gives Fresh Views on DNS

DeviceAtlas 3.2 Released

cPanel Partners With dotMobi to Launch Enhanced Version of goMobi Mobile Web Solution

Neustar Names Joe Pasqua to Head Neustar Labs

Research Reveals Commercial Potential of the New Top-Level Domain Program

Q3 2011 Fraud Intelligence Report

The Spookiest DDoS Attacks in History

Protecting Your Business from DDoS Attacks: Advice from Neustar

Afilias Launches International Contest to Explore Innovative Uses of New Top-Level Domains

All Those Cities, Listen Up! NewDomains.org in Munich

The PIR Partners With the Digital Empowerment Foundation to Bring More India-Based NGOs Online

A Different Kettle of Phish

Introduction to Nixu Software: End-to-End Software-Based DNS, DHCP, IPAM Solutions for Your Network

MarkMonitor Fraud Intelligence Report Released for Q2 2011

Award-Winning Mobile Website Builder goMobi Now Available
 Via Parallels Platform

Why Your .COM Should Be a .ORG, Too

President Obama Names Neustar President and CEO Lisa Hook to NSTAC

.CO Bursts through 1 Million Domain Milestone

Hot Topics

Afilias

DNSSEC

Sponsored by
Afilias
Neustar UltraDNS

DNS

Sponsored by
Neustar UltraDNS
Verisign

Security

Sponsored by
Verisign
Minds + Machines

Top-Level Domains

Sponsored by
Minds + Machines
dotMobi

Mobile

Sponsored by
dotMobi