Firefox Extension to protect against man in the middle attacks

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have recently launched an extension for Firefox 3. The extension can protect wireless network users from so-called ‘man-in-the-middle’ attacks.

The software is called ‘Perspectives’, and is available for download free of charge. Perspectives can protect against attacks that exploit a recently uncovered exposed flaw in the DNS system, which can translate web addresses into numerical IP addresses. In the case of an attack on the DNS system, anyone typing in a rightful legitimate web address could be redirected to a malevolent website without even realising it. With Perspectives, a pop-up warning comes up to warn that the website you are visiting is suspicious.

‘Perspectives’ is designed with an intention of guiding users away from dangerous websites. It is also designed to guarantee surfers that they will only visit safe websites. Firefox warns about those not paying a third-party Certificate Authority like VeriSign, to authenticate the website. Signing certificates can be expensive. But if they do not have it, Firefox shows an error message.

‘Perspectives’ has been developed by some smart tech-savvy researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.

Segnala presso: