Experts: International domain names may pose threat

February 2005

Security experts are warning about a new threat to Web surfers: malicious Web sites that use international domain names to spoof the Web addresses of legitimate sites.

The new trick is a variation of a known technique called the "homograph attack" and takes advantage of loopholes in the way some popular Web browsers display domain names that use non-English characters. It could allow malicious hackers and online identity theft groups to trick unsuspecting users into divulging sensitive personal information, according to advisories from The Shmoo Group, a hacker collective, and Secunia.

The warning was published after a demonstration of the new kind of homograph attacks at ShmooCon, a hacker convention in Washington, D.C. Secunia, of Copenhagen, issued advisories on the new issue for users of affected browsers and declared the issue "moderately critical."