views:

299

answers:

3

Hi,

I have a page on a website that contains a secure form inside an iframe. Although the form data submitted is secure the page doesn't appear secure as the URL in the browser is just http. Is there anything I can do to show the users that the form is secure?

A: 

Nothing that will trigger the usual browser "This is secure" indicators.

David Dorward
+7  A: 

Open the form in a new window or host the container page on a secure server. Users have a right to be skeptical of an insecure page hosting a supposedly secure page -- it's practically begging for XSS attacks.

Dan Story
+5  A: 

Although the form data submitted is secure

It may or may not be encrypted. But it's not secure, and the browser is absolutely correct to deny you a padlock icon.

If the parent page is http, then that page could easily have been altered by a man-in-the-middle attack to point the usually-secure <iframe> to a completely different server to the expected one. Or, the parent page might have had JavaScript injected into it to log any keypresses you make into the form and send them to the attacker's server.

The user would have no way of checking whether this had happened, short of viewing the page source and reading and understanding every line of markup and script inside it. This is absolutely unrealistic.

If you aren't on a page where all content is secured by https, any submission from that page is insecure, regardless of where the form action is pointed.

bobince