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Security firm Malwarebytes on Friday said it recently discovered that porn sites have been seeding boobytrapped .svg files to select visitors. When one of these people clicks on the image, it causes browsers to surreptitiously register a like for Facebook posts promoting the site.

I think I'm missing something; if you can embed arbitrary JavaScript in the SVG, why is a click necessary to make that JavaScript run? And if JavaScript on your page can exploit CSRF on Facebook, why is embedding it in an SVG necessary?

I think I'm missing something; if you can embed arbitrary JavaScript in the SVG, why is a click necessary to make that JavaScript run? And if JavaScript on your page can exploit CSRF on Facebook, why is embedding it in an SVG necessary?

A human clicking something on the site tends to get around bot detection and similar systems put in place to prevent automation. This is a basic “get the user to take an action they don’t know the outcome of” attack.

Yeah browser often blocks clicks on things without them originating from a true user click.

Eg you can’t enable sound on a webpage without a real click.

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