Safari 3.1 Update Fixes 13 Security Flaws in Apple Browser

Responding to earlier criticism from Michael Barrett, PayPal’s chief information security officer, Apple has relesed version 3.1 of its Safari browser for both Mac and Windows users. Safari 3.1 update includes 13 new security fixes. Here is a quick explanation of the latest updates:

Safari - Certificate Validation (Windows XP or Vista) 
A remote attacker may be able to cause a certificate to appear trusted. According to Apple: “a man-in-the-middle attacker may be able to direct the user to a legitimate site with a valid SSL certificate, then re-direct the user to a spoofed web site that incorrectly appears to be trusted.

Safari - Malicious Proxy Server (Windows XP or Vista)
A removed application may still be launched via the Time Machine backup. A malicious HTTPS proxy server may return arbitrary data to CFNetwork in a 502 Bad Gateway error, which could allow a secure website to be spoofed.

Safari - Cross-Site Scripting 1 (Windows XP or Vista)
By enticing a user to open a maliciously crafted URL, an attacker may cause the disclosure of sensitive information. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of URLs.

Safari - Cross-Site Scripting 2 (Mac OS X v10.4.11, v10.5.2, Windows XP or Vista)
A cross-site scripting issue exists in the processing of JavaScript: URLs. Enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted web page could allow the execution of JavaScript in the context of another site.

WebCore - document.domain (Mac OS X v10.4.11, v10.5.2, Windows XP or Vista)
An issue exists with the handling of web pages that have explicitly set the document.domain property. This could lead to a cross-site scripting attack in sites that set the document.domain property, or between HTTP and HTTPS sites with the same document.domain.

WebCore - Web Inspector (Mac OS X v10.5, v10.5.1,  Mac OS X Server v10.5, v10.5.1.)
Affected users may find that requesting to unblock a website leads to information disclosure. An issue in Web Inspector allows a page being inspected to escalate its privileges by injecting script that will run in other domains and read the user’s file system. This update addresses the issue by preventing JavaScript code on remote pages from being run.

WebCore - Password (Mac OS X v10.4.11, v10.5.2, Windows XP or Vista)
The content of password fields on web pages is normally hidden to guard against disclosing it to others with the ability to see the display. An issue exists with the use of the Kotoeri input method, which could result in exposing the password field content on the display when reverse conversion is requested.

WebCore - window.open() function (Mac OS X v10.4.11, v10.5.2, Windows XP or Vista)
The window.open() function may be used to change the security context of a webpage to the caller’s context. Enticing a user to open a maliciously crafted page could allow an arbitrary script to be executed in the user’s security context.

WebCore - Frame Navigation Policy (Mac OS X v10.4.11, v10.5.2, Windows XP or Vista)
Visiting a maliciously crafted website with Java enabled may result in cross-site scripting. By enticing a user to open a maliciously crafted web page, an attacker may obtain elevated privileges through a cross-site scripting attack using Java.

WebCore - document.domain (Mac OS X v10.4.11, v10.5.2, Windows XP or Vista)
A cross-site scripting issue exists in Safari’s handling of the document.domain property. Enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted web page may lead to the disclosure of sensitive information.

WebCore - JavaScript Injection (Mac OS X v10.4.11, v10.5.2, Windows XP or Vista)
JavaScript injection issue exists in the handling of the history object. This may allow frames to set history object properties in all other frames loaded from the same web page. An attacker may leverage this issue to inject JavaScript that will run in the context of other frames, resulting in cross-site scripting.

WebKit - Buffer Overflow (Mac OS X v10.4.11, v10.5.2, Windows XP or Vista)
Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. A buffer overflow issue exists in WebKit’s handling of JavaScript regular expressions. Enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted webpage may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.

WebKit - Cross-Site Scripting (Mac OS X v10.4.11, v10.5.2, Windows XP or Vista)
A cross-site scripting issue in WebKit allows method instances from one frame to be called in the context of another frame. Enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted web page may lead to the disclosure of sensitive information.