A Spoofed URL describes one website that poses as another. It sometimes applies a mechanism that exploits bugs in web browser technology, allowing a malicious computer attack. Such attacks are most effective against computers that lack recent security patches. Others are designed for the purpose of a parody. An example of a web browser (Mozilla Firefox running under Microsoft Windows). ... In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ...

During such an attack, a computer user innocently visits a web site and sees a familiar URL in the address bar such as http://www.wikipedia.org but is, in reality, sending information to an entirely different location that would typically be monitored by an information thief. When sensitive information is requested by a fraudulent website, it is called phishing. A Uniform Resource Locator, URL (spelled out as an acronym, not pronounced as earl), or Web address, is a standardized address name layout for resources (such as documents or images) on the Internet (or elsewhere). ... This phishing attempt, disguised as an official email from a (fictional) bank, attempts to trick the banks members into giving away their account information by confirming it at the phishers linked website. ...

The user is typically enticed to the false website from an email or a hyperlink from another website. A hyperlink, or simply a link, is a reference in a hypertext document to another document or other resource. ...

In another variation, a website may look like the original, but is in fact a parody of it. Such an example can be found at www.whitehouse.org (a spoof of www.whitehouse.gov). These are usually relatively harmless, and are more noticeably different from the original, as they usually do not exploit bugs in web browser technology. In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... An example of a web browser (Mozilla Firefox running under Microsoft Windows). ...

See also

• Spoofing attack
• Social engineering (computer security)
• Computer insecurity

In computer security, a spoofing attack is a situation in which one person or program successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data and thereby gains an illegitimate advantage. ... Social engineering is the practice of obtaining confidential information by manipulation of legitimate users. ... Many current computer systems have limited security precautions in place. ...

External links

• Secunia security describes Microsoft Internet Explorer URL spoofing vulnerability 2003
• Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 833786 - Steps that you can take to help identify and to help protect yourself from deceptive (spoofed) Web sites and malicious hyperlinks.