I'm disappointed.

If the testing method described in the last para of the article is sound

TD Canada Trust banking seems to work fine.

Not good...

A few unsecured cookies, but without the secure ones; you're logged out. 8^)

How do you check in IE?

Looks ok here :)

Phew!

Paris - because it's obviously Phorm-related

Assuming validity of the test of course

Both allow cookies over "any type of connection"

Assuming I followed instructions properly

Seems to have passed but I hope someone else tries the test.

Disappointing

But the banks, and others, say to always logout, so that would surely (?) avoid this situation? Also all banks that I have used automatically log you off if unused for a few minutes.

Anyway, will try a few...

Showed no cookies as secure, so didn't erase anything after the first clearing.

just the personal side, didn't try the business side.

First Direct seem to be OK :-)

Only one cookie from the internet banking server, and it's "encrytped connection only".

If this method works

Next, clear all cookies marked as "SECURE" (in Firefox, go to preferences > privacy > show cookies. Delete only the cookies marked as "Encrypted connections only").

What if you visit the site and it doesnt have "marked as SECURE/Encrypted connections only" It has JSESSIONID, WT_FPC, and a couple of Apache... is that good or bad :s

Didnt even need to delete any cookies. As soon as I closed the Bank of Scotland tab, and then reopened it, I was logged out.

Out of 10 banking an investment sites I've logged in to, only one is even using cookies set to "secure connections only", the rest are all "any connection", so I suspect the problem is extremely widespread.

(whew)

(Assuming I'm following the guidelines correcly - there weren't any cookies marked as secure)

This is a man in the middle attack run on a local network, you can do far more than nab cookies to sites.

And it is amusing people don't understand how cookies work, Lou Montulli is probably spinning in his grave (ok he is not dead, well not that I know off), but the mechanism has been in for ages to only transmit over a secured channel.

And you would have thought with all this phorm business, people would have looked into how they were handling their cookies, but a lot of folks use frameworks and obviuosly people who don't know what they are doing have been building those.

It is a little bit of a storm in a teacup, but the fix is so trivial, it is called not hiring cowyboy coders.

... it's not only your bank account. ebay.co.uk fails as does ebay.de

Nuff z

Couldn't do that on Firefox for some reason, but the cookie manager in Opera says Lloyds TSB's online service cookies are secure.

There's one safe way to secure our online bank accounts...don't have them online!

We've managed perfectly well for many years without online accounts.

Think I'll put up with the slight increase in inconvenience by using a bricks and mortar bank account.

Firstdirect - PASS

Konqueror reports all cookies as ... "Secure: No".

In FF3, didn't see any encrypted cookies etc, but deleted the many other new ones related to the session, then clicked on a button in the banking window - immediately booted right out...

Anonymous as I don't want anyone to know who I bank with!

Just rang them, and was told "we are aware of it" without me even saying what the issue was??

Thankfully they get something right!

I feel somewhat relieved, but then I remember I'm in court with the gits and it all comes crumbling down again :p

Just tried out the student finance site which is full of lots of lovely personal info, and they're as open as.. (on the internet, must keep clean...) a really, really, really wide open thing. *cough*

Gnatwest - OK

(they did something right for a change!)

From the US, anyway.

TD Ameritrade passes after removing secure cookies from 'ameritrade' and 'tdameritrade' domains.

boohoo... no secure cookies. gonna report it now

Damn! not a Secure Cookie in sight!

-dZ.

If you use an external proxy server you could easily be vulnerable to a Man in the Middle attack, but then if you're accessing sensitive sites via this method, you should step away from your PC.

Of course, there is the additional problem of the ubiquitious "transparent caches" employed by some ISPs, also.

I noticed that at least one person commenting above didn't understand the instructions properly, btw.

I see no "secure connection only" cookies after logging in to the co-op bank website, so presumably they're vulnerable.

Curiously Halifax do send one "secure only" cookie, however removing it doesn't cause the session to close so presumably it's one of the "any type of connection" cookies that actually matters.

Pathetic. Let's see how long it takes them all to fix it.

That's a clever little hack, goes to show there's no easy way to check your balance on the coffee shop's free wifi connection. Have to admit I didn't know about secure cookies until I read this, I'd start using SSL on all my sites if certs were a whole lot cheaper :-)

Royal bank of scotland fails for the login but now requires the use of crazy encrypto calc to do any sort of transfers outside of your own accounts.

So, someone could come in and transfer money between my own accounts, but would not be able to set up direct debits, transfer to someone else's account etc.

Not great, but at least its something. Just in time too. This is brand new,

Flooded me with cookies but none were marked as secure.

Deleting the cookies logged me out.

So does American Express - pass

I see the 2nd comment above, but logging in to https://www.mybank.alliance-leicester.co.uk/index.asp it seems like a PASS, it *always* asks for my PIN anyway, so I'm not sure if that means it was safe already.

...if I did it right.

Synovus Online Access - FAIL

(which feeds a plethora of small, home-town banks) has all of its cookies set as "any connection."

Chase - PASS

auth-user-info cookie set as encrypted only.

AT&T Wireless - FAIL

ALL cookies set as "any connection"

Sprint PCS - FAIL

ALL cookies set as "any connection"

Outlook Web Access (2003) - PASS

Removing the encrypted cookie kills the session

SBS 2003 Remote Web Workplace - FAIL

ALL cookies set to "any connection"

campus.fsu.edu (BlackBoard) - FAIL

Removing encrypted cookies (even an unencrypted by accident) retains the session.

Nelnet (Student loan handler) - BIG FAIL

Not only are all cookies set for "any connection," but all form fields used to retrieve forgotten account information are auto-complete.

Wells Fargo Financial - FAIL

ALL cookies set to "any connection"

GE Money Bank (statementlook.com) - PASS

Removing the encrypted cookie results in dead session and error.

That is all.

Royal Bank of Scotland - PASS

Paypal .co.uk - PASS (gasp!)

Ebay .co.uk - FAIL

It's been said that this is "a storm in a teacup" etc but many people may have to use networks of questionable security/ integrity & this kind of problem really should be eliminated during development.

Shame on the lack of a Paris icon.

Also, Halifax fails. As do Nationwide, Alliance and Leicester, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of America, Barclays, eBay and Bubble Burst Finance according to above posts (Summary for those too lazy to look through the list...)

Paris because Steve missed an opportunity...

I have only ever visited a bank for one of three reasons; which are, in descending order of frequency: To draw out cash via the hole-in-the-wall machine; to pay in cash or cheques via the hole-in-the-wall machine; or occasionally to grovel to a bank manager and ask for an extension to my overdraft, pretty please with brass knobs on.

TTBOMK none of these functions are replicable via a web browser!

I can't even pay my home energy bills via the internet, as there is no such thing as a home recharging device for electricity keys or gas cards.

When you live out of town and work a full 9-5:30 day there is little you can do with a 'bricks and mortar' bank until the weekend. I am a digital generation member and I do everything online, shopping, banking, voting, council tax, etc, etc

There is no need to add extra cost to my already massive fuel bills to trapse into a chav-infested cesspool of a town just to check I have funds to buy something sucking time away from my precious weekend. Yes we managed for years but online banking (and shopping, and council services, et al) makes it so much easier and quicker and I'm less likely to get stabbed by chavs or mauled by their mixbreed dogs or monitored on CCTV or weashed away in a flash flood or happy slapped or given a torch that each night takes to a magical world.

I'd still maintain I'm less likely to have my details stolen online than by someone watching over my shoulder while I input my pin, by using an altered cashpoint or someone going through my rubbish.

nuff said?

Oh, how the middle classes suffer. (Not in silence). But at least the Grauniad spells words correctly these days - I'm told. Doubtless you'll be warm this winter, as you ponder whether to vote for the other lot next time, mindful they will start rolling back nu labour's jobs-for-the-boys-and-girls schemes, so exacerbating your fears in proportion to the number of unemployed.

Now, back to those dunces called banks, that have found yet another way to fuck things up..

Do you live near Ipswitch? Personally I can't wait to be immersed in a virtual fantasy world so I never have to leave my house either, the real world is so distatesful.

I was at a cash machine the other day, it had a little sticker which said "who's looking over your shoulder?" so I had a look.... oooh it's me....

Fixed within half a day

This is for email and account management. Both have the secure cookie, both ignore it's deletion.

Cheers,

Mike

All cookies deleted - Still allows full access to account.

My bank hasn't let me log in since yesterday, it says 'cookies must be enabled' even though they are. Same deal from multiple computers. Maybe they broke it whilst trying to fix it. Anyways, I should probably call them.

I use barclays online banking and both the cookies are set to "use any type of connection" which I think is a fail. However barclays also use a token generator so maybe this offsets things.

A follow up article for less technical readers would be helpful, along with a list of the sites that are a proven problem. I cut code for a living, but I'm not a net guru.

Thanx

J.

But I think if I got my account emptied because of this I'd expect the bank to refill it again without too much of a quibble. It's hardly my fault if their security is pathetic.

Didn't even bother to check for cookies, it only ever stores username in one and flat out refuses to remember a session. As soon as you close the browser tab/window you are once more logged out.

All cookies are allowed over any connection type. And this site handles medical information. For shame.

> CookieMonster then injects images from insecure (non-https) portions of the protected website

So that means the vulnerability exists only if the secure site makes an http request. If the site always sends https, including requests for images and other resources, then there is no vulnerability. Agreed this would require a full scan of the site to ensure it was fully secure though.

There are loads of sites that accept usernames and passwords over an http connection before going to SSL, e.g. web mail apps.

Stop - because we need to think not panic.

1) If one must use cookies (instead of SESSIONS) to retain state then use cookies only for very basic, overview-type stuff. Force any transactions to be session-based, and require a secondary login using vendor-supplied credentials. I submit that using cookies of any kind for anything on a sensitive site is foolish.

2)

It is amusing that the source shows the following: There are only two conditions under which the injection will be attempted. First, if the packet is part of a request for an HTML resource, and second if the request is being made (for any type of data) by MSIE:

...

# Check accept types for html (Avoid xml, rss, img, etc)

if "accept" in req.headers and \

"text/html" in req.headers["accept"] or \

"MSIE" in user_agent:

...

Righteous.

Commbank in Australia seemed to be fine

Anon because you don't need to know who I bank with :)

For those who mentioned the times you have to use networks of questionable ethics (internet cafe or what not) if you get a half decent router at home you should be able to set up dial-in VPNs on it.

Set up a VPN on your laptop or what not and tell it to use the VPN as the default gateway (which is the default iirc) and fire it up when you're on questionable networks.

Works a treat for me :D

(And I guess I'll take this belated opportunity to use the paris icon)

Om nom nom nom!

Mine's the one with the blue fur and the googly eyes.

I'm not smiling.

US Bank set 0 of 3 cookies to 'Encrypted connections only'

Type your comment here — plain text only, no HTML

on again once cookies were deleted

All cookies sent are set for Any Connection.

Tested this and contacted the bank who sent me back a nice form letter about using secure procedures. They didn't mention using Windows is insecure.

Well I decided to go public.