Include Me Out: In-Browser Detection of Malicious Third-Party Content Inclusions

Modern websites include various types of third-party content such as JavaScript, images, stylesheets, and Flash objects in order to create interactive user interfaces. In addition to explicit inclusion of third-party content by website publishers, ISPs and browser extensions are hijacking web browsing sessions with increasing frequency to inject third-party content (e.g., ads). However, third-party content can also introduce security risks to users of these websites, unbeknownst to both website operators and users. Because of the often highly dynamic nature of these inclusions as well as the use of advanced cloaking techniques in contemporary malware, it is exceedingly difficult to preemptively recognize and block inclusions of malicious third-party content before it has the chance to attack the user’s system.