Sniffing Browser History with NO Javascript!
June 15, 2009 – 6:24 AMThis is a method of sniffing your browsing history without using Javascript. If you haven’t cleaned your browsing history recently, just click “Start Scan” and the system will get to work.
If this doesn’t shock you, it should: websites are not supposed to see this information. It has potential for anyone, in particular advertisers, to view your history and profile you.
Once you click start, it may take a few minutes before initial results appear. Overall, however, this method seems to be faster and smoother. IE will persistently click at you — sorry. Your back button will also break — sorry, again.
How? Without Javascript!?
It actually works pretty simply — it is simpler than the Javascript implementation. All it does is load a page (in a hidden Iframe) which contains lots of links. If a link is visited, a background (which isn’t really a background) is loaded as defined in the CSS. The “background” image will log the information, and then store it (and, in this case, it is displayed to you).
Proof of Concept:
http://www.making-the-web.com/misc/sites-you-visit/nojs/
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