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Google fixes security flaw in Reader

Hole could have let attackers steal sensitive data from Web surfers, according to blog revealing the flaw.

Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
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Elinor Mills
Google said it fixed a security flaw in Google Reader on Wednesday that could have allowed a hacker to steal sensitive information from Web surfers.

A Google RSS feed addition tool was vulnerable to a cross-site scripting attack, a poster to the Ha.ckers.org blog wrote on Tuesday. Such attacks involve an attacker embedding HTML scripts in Web postings or input fields on a Web site.

"What are the implications of this attack for Google?" the blog posting asked. "Well, for starters, I can put a phishing site on Google. 'Sign up for Google World Beta.' I can steal cookies to log in as the user in question...I can steal your phone number from the /sendtophone application...get your address because maps.google.com is mirrored....The list of potential vulnerabilities goes on and on. The vulnerabilities only grow as Google builds out their portal experience."

Late Wednesday, Google issued a statement that said: "We learned of a minor security flaw in Google Reader earlier today and worked quickly to fix the problem, which has now been resolved. We encourage all vulnerability reporters to follow responsible disclosure practices and notify vendors first before making the vulnerability public."