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At the Black Hat conference, security researcher Dan Kaminsky showed how problems in the way browser software works with the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) could be exploited to give attackers access to any resources behind the corporate firewall.

The key problem is the way web browsers determine how to trust other computers, says Kaminsky. This decision is based on the Internet domain name of the computer, and that DNS information can be misused, Kaminsky said. "It's a binding problem," he said during an interview after his talk. "They assume a value is not changing, but the attacker can change it whenever he chooses."

At the heart of the attack is a 1996 paper by Princeton researchers showing how a Java applet could be used to access systems on a victim's network.

Read full story: PC World

Related topics: Cyberattack, Cybercrime, DNS, Domain Names, Security