Mobile browser vulnerability lets hackers steal cloud computing time

November 29, 2012

A novel technique based on MapReduce could let hackers hijack computing resources used by cloud-based mobile browsers and use them anonymously, according to security researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Oregon. Cloud browsing uses outside computing power to process web pages and deliver them to end users, instead of doing the heavy lifting on the end-user's own device. The researchers say that the technique is particularly useful for mobile browsing, which would otherwise have to rely on a mobile device's less-powerful hardware. Opera Mini and Android Silk are the best-known browsers to use the technique, though there are others available. However, the clouds used to do the heavy lifting can be tricked into doing a number of other things, according to the researchers, who have written a paper on the subject. They call the technique browser MapReduce or BMR. Tested The team tested its idea by storing pieces of data on URL-shortening sites, effectively tricking both those sites and the cloud browser providers into performing computations for them. NCSU assistant professor William Enck, a co-author of the paper, said in a statement that the team limited the amount of data processed in this way to 100MB. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/112812-vulnerability-hackers-cloud-computing-264610.html