cve.bz

CAPEC-103

Clickjacking

High severityMedium likelihoodStandard pattern

An adversary tricks a victim into unknowingly initiating some action in one system while interacting with the UI from a seemingly completely different, usually an adversary controlled or intended, system.

On this page

While being logged in to some target system, the victim visits the adversary's malicious site which displays a UI that the victim wishes to interact with. In reality, the clickjacked page has a transparent layer above the visible UI with action controls that the adversary wishes the victim to execute. The victim clicks on buttons or other UI elements they see on the page which actually triggers the action controls in the transparent overlaying layer. Depending on what that action control is, the adversary may have just tricked the victim into executing some potentially privileged (and most certainly undesired) functionality in the target system to which the victim is authenticated. The basic problem here is that there is a dichotomy between what the victim thinks they are clicking on versus what they are actually clicking on.

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Show the promptExplain the attack pattern CAPEC-103: Clickjacking: how it unfolds, what it needs and how to prevent and detect it in my systems. Use https://capec.mitre.org/data/definitions/103.html and https://cve.bz/cve/capec/103?via=ask-ai-copy, which lists recent CVEs with the weaknesses it exploits. Cite the sources.

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How the attack unfolds

  1. Experiment

    They probe what they found.

    1. [Craft a clickjacking page] The adversary utilizes web page layering techniques to try to craft a malicious clickjacking page

      4 techniques
      • The adversary leveraged iframe overlay capabilities to craft a malicious clickjacking page
      • The adversary leveraged Flash file overlay capabilities to craft a malicious clickjacking page
      • The adversary leveraged Silverlight overlay capabilities to craft a malicious clickjacking page
      • The adversary leveraged cross-frame scripting to craft a malicious clickjacking page

  2. Exploit

    They carry out the attack.

    1. [Adversary lures victim to clickjacking page] Adversary utilizes some form of temptation, misdirection or coercion to lure the victim to loading and interacting with the clickjacking page in a way that increases the chances that the victim will click in the right areas.

      3 techniques
      • Lure the victim to the malicious site by sending the victim an e-mail with a URL to the site.
      • Lure the victim to the malicious site by manipulating URLs on a site trusted by the victim.
      • Lure the victim to the malicious site through a cross-site scripting attack.

    2. [Trick victim into interacting with the clickjacking page in the desired manner] The adversary tricks the victim into clicking on the areas of the UI which contain the hidden action controls and thereby interacts with the target system maliciously with the victim's level of privilege.

      2 techniques
      • Hide action controls over very commonly used functionality.
      • Hide action controls over very psychologically tempting content.

Prerequisites

  • The victim is communicating with the target application via a web based UI and not a thick client

  • The victim's browser security policies allow at least one of the following JavaScript, Flash, iFrames, ActiveX, or CSS.

  • The victim uses a modern browser that supports UI elements like clickable buttons (i.e. not using an old text only browser)

  • The victim has an active session with the target system.

  • The target system's interaction window is open in the victim's browser and supports the ability for initiating sensitive actions on behalf of the user in the target system

Skills required

  • High skill

    Crafting the proper malicious site and luring the victim to this site are not trivial tasks.

Resources required

  • None: No specialized resources are required to execute this type of attack.

Consequences

What a successful attack can lead to
ImpactAffectsNote
Gain PrivilegesConfidentiality, Access Control, Authorization
Modify DataIntegrity
Read DataConfidentiality
Unreliable ExecutionAvailability

Mitigations

  • If using the Firefox browser, use the NoScript plug-in that will help forbid iFrames.

  • Turn off JavaScript, Flash and disable CSS.

  • When maintaining an authenticated session with a privileged target system, do not use the same browser to navigate to unfamiliar sites to perform other activities. Finish working with the target system and logout first before proceeding to other tasks.

Weaknesses it exploits

  • CWE-1021 Improper Restriction of Rendered UI Layers or Frames

Recent CVEs with these weaknesses

  1. 2.5CVE-2026-18194

    IBM App Connect Enterprise 13.0.1.0 through 13.0.8.2 could allow a remote attacker to perform unauthorized actions due to missing anti-clickjacking controls.

  2. 5.1CVE-2026-123529

    Vikunja before 2.7.1 contains a stored CSS injection vulnerability that allows authenticated users with project write access to inject arbitrary CSS via unsanitized table-cell data-background-color attributes. Attackers can store crafted t…

  3. 3.5CVE-2026-123850

    In JetBrains YouTrack before 2026.2.19422 cSS injection was possible in Mermaid diagrams via configuration directives

  4. 3.1CVE-2026-21834

    HCL AION is affected by a vulnerability where the Content-Security-Policy (CSP) security response header was missing from application responses. Without this header, the browser does not restrict the sources of scripts and other content, i…

  5. 5.3CVE-2026-123311

    In JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA before 2026.3, 2026.2.4 command execution via a hidden run control in the Markdown preview was possible

  6. 5.3CVE-2026-18159

    A vulnerability in OpenText OpenText Directory Services (OTDS) on Windows and Linux allows Clickjacking. This issue affects OpenText Directory Services (OTDS): from 10.5 through 26.2.

  7. 4.6CVE-2026-108536

    IBM Db2 Genius Hub 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 1.1.5 could allow a remote authenticated attacker to bypass security restrictions due to improper restriction of rendered UI layers or frames.

  8. 5.1CVE-2026-108049

    Clickjacking vulnerability in the Alosuite web application. The affected login interface can be embedded in a web page controlled by an attacker because it does not implement adequate user interface protection mechanisms, such as the X-Fra…

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Part of
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Examples

A victim has an authenticated session with a site that provides an electronic payment service to transfer fun…

A victim has an authenticated session with a site that provides an electronic payment service to transfer funds between subscribing members. At the same time, the victim receives an e-mail that appears to come from an online publication to which they subscribe with links to today's news articles. The victim clicks on one of these links and is taken to a page with the news story. There is a screen with an advertisement that appears on top of the news article with the 'skip this ad' button. Eager to read the news article, the user clicks on this button. Nothing happens. The user clicks on the button one more time and still nothing happens.

In reality, the victim activated a hidden action control located in a transparent layer above the 'skip this ad' button. The ad screen blocking the news article made it likely that the victim would click on the 'skip this ad' button. Clicking on the button, actually initiated the transfer of $1000 from the victim's account with an electronic payment service to an adversary's account. Clicking on the 'skip this ad' button the second time (after nothing seemingly happened the first time) confirmed the transfer of funds to the electronic payment service.

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