Website Attempting to Access Clipboard

[JW]

I'm running IE7. When I recently visited a website, I got the following
pop-up window:

"Do you want to allow this webpage to access your Clipboard?
If you allow this, the webpage can access the Clipboard and read information
that you've cut or copied recently."

I've never seen this message before, but I continue to get it on every page
of their website. I can click on "deny access" and everything works fine,
but I'm curious why a website would attempt to access my Clipboard? They are
a legit company with their products carried in a number of stores, but I
thought that seemed awfully intrusive. When I contacted their customer
service, I was told the problem was in my security settings, and websites
"frequently" accessed Clipboards without the user's knowledge. Sounds like a
lot of B.S. to me, but I would appreciate any feedback/comments. Are there
any particular security settings in my IE that I need to look in on?
Thanks,
JW

 

[Don Varnau]

Hi,
The setting to eliminate this prompt is at:
Internet Options> Security> Internet Zone> Custom Level> Allow Programmatic
clipboard access... Enable.

Some websites have a legitimate reason to access your clipboard- snipurl.com
for example. The website you were using may or may not have had a good
reason. Unless some feature of the site involved copying and pasting, I
would also question the need for clipboard access.

Hope this helps,
Don
[MS MVP- IE]

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I'm running IE7. When I recently visited a website, I got the following
pop-up window:

"Do you want to allow this webpage to access your Clipboard?
If you allow this, the webpage can access the Clipboard and read information
that you've cut or copied recently."

I've never seen this message before, but I continue to get it on every page
of their website. I can click on "deny access" and everything works fine,

Then you will appreciate that IE6 used to allow it by default.
The new setting in IE7 is to at least prompt you before it happens.

but I'm curious why a website would attempt to access my Clipboard?

What are you doing when it happens?
Are they writing to it or reading from it?
If you are posting a long composition without a backup ; )
they might be providing a service by copying it to ClipBoard
when you press Send. If they are reading from it
they might be thinking that you might have used Copy/Paste
to "type" your password... ; o Etc.

They are
a legit company with their products carried in a number of stores, but I
thought that seemed awfully intrusive. When I contacted their customer
service, I was told the problem was in my security settings, and websites
"frequently" accessed Clipboards without the user's knowledge. Sounds like a
lot of B.S. to me, but I would appreciate any feedback/comments. Are there
any particular security settings in my IE that I need to look in on?

The prompt is a good compromise in case sometimes you do want to take
advantage of some service that a website might provide by using the ClipBoard.
It is also useful by making you aware of all the cases that function is used.
However, if you want to could set it back to Enable to be compatible
with IE6 or set it to Disable and then change it to either Enable or Prompt
as needed. The setting is in the Security Settings Custom Level,
Scripting section: Allow Programmatic clipboard access

Thanks,
JW

HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---

 

[Vincenzo Di Russo [MVP]]

I'm running IE7. When I recently visited a website, I got the following
pop-up window:

"Do you want to allow this webpage to access your Clipboard?
If you allow this, the webpage can access the Clipboard and read
information that you've cut or copied recently."

I've never seen this message before, but I continue to get it on every
page of their website. I can click on "deny access" and everything works
fine, but I'm curious why a website would attempt to access my Clipboard?
They are a legit company with their products carried in a number of
stores, but I thought that seemed awfully intrusive. When I contacted
their customer service, I was told the problem was in my security
settings, and websites "frequently" accessed Clipboards without the
user's knowledge. Sounds like a lot of B.S. to me, but I would appreciate
any feedback/comments. Are there any particular security settings in my
IE that I need to look in on? Thanks,
JW

What Don and Robert said and...
"Stronger Default Security Settings for Script Access to the Clipboard in
Internet Explorer 7":
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb250473.aspx

--
Vincenzo Di Russo
Microsoft® MVP - Most Valuable Professional
Windows - Internet Explorer & Security since 2003
My home:
My Blog: http://blogs.dotnethell.it/vincent/

 

[JW]

Then you will appreciate that IE6 used to allow it by default.
The new setting in IE7 is to at least prompt you before it happens.


What are you doing when it happens?
Are they writing to it or reading from it?
If you are posting a long composition without a backup ; )
they might be providing a service by copying it to ClipBoard
when you press Send. If they are reading from it
they might be thinking that you might have used Copy/Paste
to "type" your password... ; o Etc.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. I actually learned something new
today, a surprising revelation. <G> I used IE6 for years and had no clue
this was happening, so I guess it wasn't too hazardous to my health... I
still cannot imagine why a business website like this one would want to
raise the viewer's ire and suspicion by having this occur. The website is a
simple "marketing presence" website that does nothing but provide
information. No viewer input at all, not even an inquiry form. There's no
log-in for returning customers, nada.... Oh well.... Thanks again.