ssj100 wrote:Well if you use Hotmail, you'll need to add "live.com" into the exceptions list of your code, otherwise you can't login!
This mean the site is buggy beyond any hope (because it
forces unencrypted HTTP on some exchanges, for inexplicable reasons), and you should stop using it by principle.
ssj100 wrote:
Regardless, I've got a question or two regarding "mixed content" logging - how exactly would a "malicious logger" do this?
If some content is served through HTTP, and the attacker controls part or all of the network infrastructure you're using (e.g. the DNS, or the exit node you're using if you're connected through TOR), a man in the middle attack is possible: the malicious party will replace the HTTP content with its own, causing the HTTPS site to load through compromised HTTP a script which can access the DOM of the main page and read any data there, including passwords, or even load and read other pages using hidden frames or XHR.
Notice, though, that the scenario above is different from the "Firesheep" attack, because Firesheep doesn't rely on "mixed content", i.e. a HTTPS page embedding HTTP elements, but a sloppy/incomplete HTTPS implementation, i.e. a site which doesn't use HTTPS, or use it only for some pages, and anyway doesn't enforce a strict HTTPS policy (which, on the contrary, means that HTTP should be not allowed on that domain at all). A "Firesheep" attack doesn't require scripting (the attacker just passively sniffs the network traffic), but on the other hand is easily defeated by forcing HTTPS, if the site supports it.
ssj100 wrote:With the example that Microsoft gives, it shows that it doesn't require any "extra" scripts for it to work - all you need is to allow "microsoft.com".
I'm not sure I follow you here. Which is the example Microsoft gives?
ssj100 wrote:I suppose this means if you allowed your banking site's script(s) to run, NoScript wouldn't protect you from such malicious logging unless you used ABE?
Who told you that? If all the content on the banking site is forced to HTTPS, and supposing there's no system-level keylogger installed by a trojan (in which case you'd have definitely bigger troubles), no malicious logging will happen unless the bank site itself has been succesfully compromised.
Notice also that in the bank scenario NoScript will actively prevent another kind of attack which could work-around even a full-HTTPS web site security, i.e. cross-site scripting attacks injection malicious scripts.
ssj100 wrote:And therefore, going by this theory, there's no way NoScript would protect you (since you'd need to allow "live.com" in your ABE code) if you use Hotmail as your e-mail?
Don't forget the original premise: if HTTPS cannot be fully enforced (and if this is the case, the site is definitely to blame with great shame), Nocript cannot protect you
on an hostile network, i.e. when the attacker controls the DNS, or can sniff the traffic (in a public WiFi hotspot, for instance).
But as I told you, if this is the case you'd better change your provider (GMail provides full HTTPS encryption, for instance).