A Finnish computer scientist has identified a bug in browsers' auto-complete systems that delivers user information to hackers
Warning, a flaw in some browsers could deliver your credit card information into the hands of hackers. And not only that. In fact, the bug would allow hackers to acquire other sensitive information as well. According to Viljami Kuosmanen, a Finnish hacker and web developer.
According to what the computer scientist said and proved, the new phishing attempt made by cyber criminals would exploit the auto-fill system of browsers to steal users' personal information. The affected browsers include Chrome, Opera and Safari, while Mozilla would be immune to the attacks. The scam is quite simple: auto-fill systems would be induced to enter users' personal information into hidden text boxes without the user noticing.
How the hacker attack works and how to check if you are at risk
The auto-fill systems in most browsers store information that is then automatically inserted into web pages. Users are therefore spared the annoying task of retyping, for example, username, password, email, address and other sensitive data such as credit card details. The new phishing attempt would use flaws in browsers to acquire this information. In practice, the autofill systems would insert the data, apparently not required by the site, into invisible text boxes. All without the users' knowledge. In this way, for hackers, stealing our data is really a child's play.
To check if you have been infected, just go to the web app created by Viljami Kuosmanen.
Only Mozilla is saved
Of course, everything must start from an ad hoc website that includes at least some text boxes. The advice, according to the experts, is to disable the autofill of the browser, which is normally activated by default. It is not a coincidence that the only safe browser is Firefox Mozilla, which still does not include any system of auto-completion.
How to disable auto-completion in Chrome
To protect yourself from possible attacks you can disable the auto-completion in Chrome: to do this just go into Settings, click on Show Advanced Settings and then uncheck the words "Enable Auto-complete to fill out web forms with a single click".