Gone phishing: The problem could potentially allow people to be directed to imitation web pages.

Credit: iStockphoto

Related articles

• Internet is spherical with a dense core
• Photo-harvesting software creates 3-D world
• Internet addiction rife
• PCs still changing the world after 25 years
• New Microsoft MP3 player targets Apple's iPod

SAN FRANCISCO: Computer industry heavyweights are hustling to fix a flaw in the foundation of the Internet that would let hackers control traffic on the World Wide Web.

Major software and hardware makers worked in secret for months to create a software "patch" released yesterday to repair the problem, which is in the way computers are routed to web page addresses.

Fundamental problem

"It's a very fundamental issue with how the entire addressing scheme of the Internet works," Rich Mogul an analyst for Internet security form Securosis, based in Arizona, U.S., said. "You'd have the Internet, but it wouldn't be the Internet you expect. (Hackers) would control everything."

The flaw would be a boon for "phishing" cons that involve leading people to imitation web pages of businesses such as bank or credit card companies to trick them into disclosing account numbers, passwords and other information.

Attackers could use the vulnerability to route Internet users wherever they wanted no matter what website address is typed into a web browser.

Security researcher Dan Kaminsky of IOActive, based in Seattle, U.S., stumbled upon the Domain Name System (DNS) vulnerability about six months ago and reached out to industry giants including Microsoft, Sun and Cisco to collaborate on a solution. DNS is used by every computer that links to the Internet and works similar to a telephone system routing calls to proper numbers, in this case the online numerical addresses of websites.

Don't panic

"People should be concerned but they should not be panicking," Kaminsky said. "We have bought you as much time as possible to test and apply the patch. Something of this scale has not happened before."

Kaminsky built a web page, www.doxpara.com, where people can find out whether their computers have the DNS vulnerability.

Kaminsky was among about 16 researchers from around the world who met in March at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington, to figure out what to do about the flaw.

"I found it completely by accident," Kaminsky said. "I was looking at something that had nothing to do with security. This one issue affected not just Microsoft and Cisco, but everybody."

The cadre of software wizards charted an unprecedented course, creating a patch to release simultaneously across all computer software platforms. "This hasn't been done before and it is a massive undertaking," Kaminsky said.