Onarlıoğu, K.Battal, MustafaRobertson, W.Kırda, E.2016-02-082016-02-082013-07http://hdl.handle.net/11693/27988Conference name:10th International Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware, and Vulnerability Assessment, DIMVA 2013Date of Conference: 18-19 July , 2013A poorly designed web browser extension with a security vulnerability may expose the whole system to an attacker. Therefore, attacks directed at "benign-but-buggy" extensions, as well as extensions that have been written with malicious intents pose significant security threats to a system running such components. Recent studies have indeed shown that many Firefox extensions are over-privileged, making them attractive attack targets. Unfortunately, users currently do not have many options when it comes to protecting themselves from extensions that may potentially be malicious. Once installed and executed, the extension needs to be trusted. This paper introduces Sentinel, a policy enforcer for the Firefox browser that gives fine-grained control to the user over the actions of existing JavaScript Firefox extensions. The user is able to define policies (or use predefined ones) and block common attacks such as data exfiltration, remote code execution, saved password theft, and preference modification. Our evaluation of Sentinel shows that our prototype implementation can effectively prevent concrete, real-world Firefox extension attacks without a detrimental impact on users' browsing experience. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.EnglishBrowser extensionsWeb browser securityAttack targetData exfiltrationFine-grained controlPrototype implementationsSecurity threatsSecurity vulnerabilitiesWeb browser securityComputer crimeWeb browsersWorld Wide WebConference Paper10.1007/978-3-642-39235-1_7