Flaw in Evernote Extension Allows Hackers to Steal Data

A vulnerability identified by researchers in a popular Evernote extension for Chrome can be exploited by hackers to steal sensitive information from the websites accessed by a user.

The research team at browser security firm Guardio discovered that Evernote Web Clipper for Chrome is affected by a universal cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability that allows malicious websites to bypass the browser’s same-origin policy (SOP) and execute arbitrary code on the victim’s behalf.

Evernote Web Clipper for Chrome is an extension that allows users to easily save webpages, articles, images, text and emails to Evernote.

The exploit involves visiting a malicious website set up to load hidden iframes of the targeted websites. The flaw in the Evernote extension allows an attacker to inject a malicious payload into all iframe contexts and steal cookies, credentials and other information.

Guardio has published a video showing how an attacker can steal a user’s Facebook information and data on PayPal transactions.

The vulnerability, classified by the company as critical, can be highly useful to malicious actors considering that the Evernote Web Clipper extension has over 4.6 million users.

The flaw, caused by what Guardio has described as a logical coding error, is tracked as CVE-2019-12592. The security hole was reported to Evernote developers on May 27 and it was patched just a few days later with the release of version 7.11.1. Users have been advised to ensure that they have the latest version. Chrome, by default, updates extensions automatically, but users can disable the auto-update feature.

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Original author: Eduard Kovacs