padlock icon relies on address bar being visible

[Michael Roitzsch]

Hi Konqueror team,

I just want to pass an idea of mine around amongst browser vendors:

I have lately written an article about a security flaw common to a lot of 
browsers: The closed padlock icon is completely worthless when the user does 
not verify the domain by looking at the address bar, yet there is no 
indication in the user interface telling the user to do that. Even worse, 
some browsers allow UI configurations where the padlock icon is visible, but 
the address bar is not. While this is a good idea (URIs are an internal 
detail, the user should not have to worry about it), the padlock icon needs 
enhancement to ensure secure operation.

You can find my small article about the subject here:
http://www.amalthea.de/publications/browser-padlock-flaw.pdf

A generic solution to homograph attacks I presented can be easily included 
into the above idea, since the verification of the domain name is susceptible 
to homograph attacks:
http://www.amalthea.de/publications/homograph.pdf

To summarize: I propose a whitelist of trusted domains. Everytime the user 
enters a new SSL site, a dialog asks, if the domain is trusted. The closed 
padlock is only shown for trusted SSL sites.

Michael Roitzsch

-- 
A train station is a station where trains stop - 
but what the hell is a workstation ?