Cross-origin communication in browser frames

• US 8,365,061 B1
• Filed: 11/02/2011
• Issued: 01/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Schorr, Joseph, Lisbakken, Ben, Bloom, David, Scudder, Jeffrey W
• Primary Examiner(s): HUYNH, THU V
• Application Number:
  US13/287,599
• Time in Patent Office: 454 Days
• Field of Search: 715/240, 715/234, 715/205, 715/200, 715/255
• US Class Current: 715/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

A device may create a child frame within a container frame displayed by a browser program. The child frame may be associated with an origin that is different than an origin associated with the container frame. The device may determine whether the child frame is locked to prohibit reading of information relating to the child frame. The determination of whether the child frame is locked including checking whether a first variable is present in the child frame. The device may determine one or more values relating to the child frame, where the one or more values are determined by checking whether a second set of variables is present in the child frame, where each variable, in the second set, corresponds to a single bit of the one or more values.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, containing instructions for execution by a browser program executed by one or more devices, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions to:

create an inline frame (iFrame) and another frame presented by the browser program, the iFrame being associated with an origin that is different than an origin associated with the other frame;

determine whether a first variable is present in the iFrame;

determine whether the iFrame is locked, to prohibit reading of information relating to the iFrame, based on determining whether the first variable is present in the iFrame;

determine, when the iFrame is not locked, a set of second variables present in the iFrame,

determine one or more binary values based on the set of second variables,

where each of the one or more binary values comprises a plurality of bits,

where each bit of the plurality of bits corresponds to a presence or an absence of a corresponding variable of the set of second variables; and

control, based on the one or more binary values, a visual presentation of the other frame presented by the browser program.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the first variable and the set of second variables correspond to hyper-text markup language (HTML) image tags within the iFrame.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2, where the first variable and the set of second variables are assigned predetermined names through name attributes of the HTML image tags.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the origin, associated with the content of the iFrame, is associated with one or more servers that provide advertisements for display by the browser program.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the one or more binary values relate to a height of the iFrame.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to:

when the iFrame is locked, periodically repeat the determination of whether the iFrame is locked until the iFrame is not locked.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the first variable and the set of second variables correspond to links within the iFrame.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the other frame is a container frame or a sibling frame of the iFrame.

9. A device-implemented method comprising:

determining, by a device executing a first frame of a browser program, to communicate at least one binary value to a second frame, of the browser program being executed by the device,

where the first frame includes content associated with a first origin and the second frame includes content associated with a second origin, and

where each of the at least one binary value comprises a plurality of bits;

setting, by the device, a first variable to indicate that the at least one binary value is being set by the first frame;

setting or unsetting, by the device, a set of second variables to encode the at least one binary value,

where each variable, in the set of second variables, corresponds to a single bit of the plurality of bits of the at least one binary value,

where a presence of a variable in the set of second variables encodes the single bit corresponding to the variable as a first binary digit,

where an absence of the variable in the set of second variables encodes the single bit corresponding to the variable as a second binary digit, and

where the first binary digit does not equal the second binary digit; and

unsetting, after setting or unsetting each the second set of variables, by the device, the first variable, to permit the one or more binary values to be communicated to the second frame.

10. The method of claim 9, where the first frame includes an inline frame (iFrame) and the second frame contains the iFrame or is a sibling frame to the iFrame.

11. The method of claim 9, where setting or unsetting the set of second variables includes:

instantiating images in the first frame to set the set of second variables, and

deleting the images in the first frame to unset the set of second variables.

12. The method of claim 9, where the first variable and the set of second variables correspond to hyper-text markup language (HTML) image tags within the first frame.

13. The method of claim 9, where the at least one binary value relates to a size of the first frame.

14. The method of claim 9, where the first variable and the set of second variables correspond to links within the first frame.

15. The method of claim 14, where setting the first variable or the set of second variables includes visiting of links within the first frame.

16. A device-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by the device and from a client device, a request for a hyper-text markup language (HTML) document;

generating the HTML document to include programming instructions, that when executed by the client device, cause the client device to;

set a first variable to indicate that at least one binary value is being set by a frame corresponding to the HTML document,

where each one of the at least one binary value comprise a plurality of single bits,

set or unset each variable, of a set of second variables, to encode the at least one binary value,

where each variable, in the set of second variables, corresponds to a single bit of the plurality of single bits,

where a presence of a variable in the set of second variables encodes the single bit corresponding to the variable as a first binary digit, and

where an absence of the variable in the set of second variables encodes the single bit corresponding to the variable as a second binary digit that is different from the first binary digit, and

unset, after setting or unsetting the set of second variables, the first variable; and

transmitting the generated HTML document to the client device.

17. The method of claim 16, where the device includes an advertisement server.

18. The method of claim 16, where the first variable and the set of second variables correspond to hyper-text markup language (HTML) image tags.

19. The method of claim 16, where the at least one binary value relates to a size of the frame.

20. The method of claim 16, where the first variable and the set of second variables correspond to links within the frame.

21. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory storing programming instructions for execution by the one or more processors, the programming instructions, when executed, causing the one or more processors to;

create an inline frame (iFrame) within a second frame presented by a browser program for display, the iFrame being associated with an origin that is different than an origin associated with the second frame,

where the iFrame communicates at least one binary value to the second frame, and

where each one of the at least one binary value comprises a plurality of single bits;

set or unset, by the iFrame, a set of variables to encode the at least one binary value,

where each variable, in the set of variables, corresponds to a single bit of the plurality of single bits of the at least one binary value, and

where a presence of a variable, in the set of variables, encodes the single bit corresponding to the variable as a first binary digit and an absence of the variable, in the set of variables, encodes the single bit corresponding to the variable as a second binary digit that is different from the first binary digit; and

determine, by the second frame, the at least one binary value communicated by the iFrame,

where the at least one binary value is determined by checking whether each variable, of the set of variables, is present or absent in the iFrame; and

control, based on the at least one binary value, a visual presentation of the second frame.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, where the programming instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor further to:

set, by the iFrame, a lock variable, before setting or unsetting the set of variables; and

unset, by the iFrame, the lock variable, after setting or unsetting the set of variables.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, where the programming instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor further to:

perform the determination, by the second frame, of the at least one binary value, only when the lock variable is absent in the iFrame.

24. The apparatus of claim 21, where the set of variables correspond to hyper-text markup language (HTML) image tags within the iFrame.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, where the origin associated with the iFrame is associated with one or more servers that provide advertisements for presentation by the browser program for display.

26. The apparatus of claim 21, where the at least one binary value relates to a size of the iFrame.

27. The apparatus of claim 21, where the set of variables correspond to links within the iFrame.

28. The apparatus of claim 21, where the second frame is a container frame or sibling frame of the iFrame.