RSS: The next malware target?

If you're not familiar with RSS, it's a technology that's been around since 1999, but is only now gaining mainstream popularity. RSS allows Web content publishers to distribute content updates to end users and allows those readers to use a single content aggregator to access all of their sites of interest simultaneously. At this point, RSS is in stage 1 of the process above. It's out there and big business is beginning to get on the bandwagon, leading us toward stage 2. We already see large content sites making RSS feeds available, such as the CNN RSS link shown below:

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The only factor preventing a full-fledged adoption of RSS technology is that it isn't integrated into popular communication tools. However, Microsoft is about to change all of that with the release of Internet Explorer 7. This new browser incorporates support for adding and maintaining RSS feeds. It's likely that this will remove the final barrier to widespread use of RSS and we'll

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In fact, David Sancho, Senior AV Research Engineer for Trend Micro, recently released a white paper entitled "The Future of Bot Worms," which highlights RSS hijacking as one of the emerging threats facing Internet users. The basic idea is that malware will leverage current RSS subscriptions in the user's browser to gain a legitimate jumping-off point for receiving updates from bot headquarters. The RSS feed is already trusted by the user's desktop firewall, so it provides the ideal environment for "phoning home."

So, now that you're sufficiently worried about the security risks RSS may pose to your organization, what can you do about it? Fortunately, there are some straightforward measures you can take while awaiting the release of RSS security tools: RSS is certainly an exciting new technology that holds great promise for the enhanced distribution of information over the Internet. Be sure that you keep these security tips in mind to ensure a safe RSS experience for your organization.

About the author
Mike Chapple, CISSP is an IT Security Professional with the University of Notre Dame. He previously served as an information security researcher with the National Security Agency and the U.S. Air Force. Mike is a frequent contributor to SearchSecurity, a technical editor for Information Security magazine and the author of several information security titles, including the CISSP Prep Guide and Information Security Illuminated.

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