Bypassing SOP with Iframes - 1

👉 Overview

👀 What ?

Iframes are HTML documents embedded inside another HTML document on a website. Bypassing Same-Origin Policy (SOP) with Iframes refers to the process of circumventing the security measure that restricts scripts contained in a web page from accessing data in a different domain.

🧐 Why ?

Understanding this concept is crucial as it pertains to web security. Iframes can be used maliciously to exfiltrate data or execute unauthorized actions on another domain, hence bypassing SOP with Iframes can pose serious security risks.

⛏️ How ?

To bypass SOP with iframes, an attacker can create an iframe that loads the target website, then the attacker can use various techniques to interact with that website through the iframe. However, modern browsers have security measures in place to prevent such attacks, such as the 'sandbox' attribute for iframes.

⏳ When ?

The practice of bypassing SOP with iframes started with the advent of dynamic web content, where websites began to include elements from different domains.

⚙️ Technical Explanations

The Same-Origin Policy (SOP) is a critical security mechanism implemented in web browsers to prevent JavaScript code from making requests against a different origin (domain, protocol, or port) than its own. An origin is defined as a combination of URI scheme, hostname, and port number. SOP helps to isolate documents from different origins, thereby safeguarding the data and functionality from malicious tampering. However, iframes have the potential to bypass this policy and execute cross-origin requests, posing a significant security threat.