Inline Linking - Controversial Uses of Inline Linking

Controversial Uses of Inline Linking

The blurring of boundaries between sites can lead to other problems when the site violates users' expectations. Other times, inline linking can be done for malicious purposes.

• Content sites where the object is stored and from which it is retrieved may not like the new placement.
• Inline linking to an image stored on another site increases the bandwidth use of that site even though the site is not being viewed as intended. The complaint may be the loss of ad revenue or changing the perceived meaning through an unapproved context.
• Cross-site scripting and phishing attacks may include inline links to a legitimate site to gain the confidence of a victim.
• Pay-per-content services may attempt to restrict access to their content through complex scripting and inline linking techniques.
• Inline objects can be used to perform drive-by attacks on the client, exploiting faults in the code that interprets the objects. When an object is stored on an external server, the referring site has no control over if and when an originally beneficial object's content is replaced by malicious content.
• The requests for inline objects usually contain the referrer information. This leaks information about the browsed pages to the servers hosting the objects (see web visitor tracking).