URL SPOOFING

This kind of link set up has also included one or more null characters before the '@' sign (see text about links, above) to disguise the true destination of a link and prevent it from displaying correctly in the browser address bar or status bar. This URL spoofing (or URL cloaking) is a vulnerability in some Mozilla and Internet Explorer browsers. Try this next link to see if your browser is vulnerable to this exploit and observe the shocking result if it is ...

http://www.ebay.com

USE THE ABOVE LINK TO
CHECK YOUR BROWSER FOR THIS VULNERABILITY NOW!

If your browser is vulnerable, you may see http://www.ebay.com in your browser status bar while the mouse is positioned over the link OR if you click on the link, you may will http://www.ebay.com in your browser address bar, while our home page is displayed in the browser window. You can imagine the uses that this has for fraudsters and scammers. (Note, the above URL uses multiple null characters which has the effect pushing part of the full URL out of the visible part of some browser's status bar, thereby only showing http://www.ebay.com. In other cases, including Microsoft's Outlook, it can take only one null character).

If your browser is not vulnerable, patched Internet Explorer browsers will show a The page cannot be displayed error page.

You can also use our Spoof URL Checker to see if you are at a web page that is exploiting this vulnerability or our Link Tester to see if a link uses this exploit.

Please note that Microsoft issued a cumulative Critical Update to address this issue on the 2nd February 2004. For more information see here and to ensure that you are up to date, please run windows update and install all Critical Updates.

Please note that MacAfee Antivirus may incorrectly report a 'trojan' on this page - this AV program reports this because of the example malformed link that forms part of the URL spoofing check. We no longer recommend MacAfee Antivirus because of this problem. The following excerpt from mcafee.com may help to explain further...

"There are no obvious symptoms of this exploit.  Files detected as Exploit-URLSpoof are benign themselves.  No system changes or damage occurs from accessing an Expliot-URLSpoof file.  However, following an exploited hyperlink within a detected file can result in users being tricked to divulge personal information, install malicious software, etc."