User Location Via XSS

Samy Kamkar, in an incredibly interesting session at Black Hat titled "How I Met Your Girlfriend," highlighted new types attacks executed from the Web. An interesting hack he demonstrated, was the ability to extract extremely accurate geo-location information from a Web browser, while not using any IP geo-location data.

Kamkar, by convincing the victim to visit his malicious Web site, used remote JavaScript and AJAX to acquire a routers MAC address. When the unsuspecting user visited his malicious Web site, JavaScript remotely scanned for the type of router used, accessed the routers MAC address and sent it directly to him. From there, he was able to utilize Google Street View data to determine the location of a router – in his case, accurate within 30 feet.

Kamkar, author of an XSS worm that hit MySpace and generated over 1mm friends for him in less than 24 hours, demonstrates this hack in the video below.