The Browser Hacker's Handbook

CHAPTER 3

Retaining Control

There is limited value in getting your foot in the door if that door gets slammed within moments. In Chapter 2, you learned how to get your foot in the door. Now you need to learn how to keep that door open. In hacking terms, this means that once you have captured the initial control of the browser, you will need to retain it. This is where the Retaining Control phase of the browser hacking methodology comes in.

Retaining control over your target can be categorized into two broad areas. These are Retaining Communication and Retaining Persistence. The primary concept of retaining a communication channel is based on establishing a mechanism to retain control with a targeted browser, or better yet, multiple browsers. Retaining persistence covers techniques that allow the communication channel to remain active despite any actions the user undertakes.

As you will see in the following chapters, many attacks need time for execution, some on the order of seconds. These timing issues are compounded when executing chained attacks, where multiple actions are combined together. Having a stable communication channel is a critical requirement for any serious browser hacking activity. Without it, your time will run out and you will be back to square one.

This chapter covers numerous techniques for retaining control of your target browser to give you time to complete your attack. However, you should not consider the methods an exhaustive list. You might already know ...