Eric Johanson has reported a security issue in Konqueror, which can be exploited by a malicious web site to spoof the URL displayed in the address bar and status bar.

The problem is caused due to an unintended result of the IDN (International Domain Name) implementation, which allows using international characters in domain names.

This can be exploited by registering domain names with certain international characters that resembles other commonly used characters, thereby causing the user to believe they are on a trusted site.

Secunia has constructed a test, which can be used to check if your browser is affected by this issue:
http://secunia.com/multiple_browsers_idn_spoofing_test/

The security issue affects all versions in the KDE 3.2.x and KDE 3.3.x series.

NOTE: This is reportedly a KDE-wide issue and does therefore also affect other KDE applications displaying URLs.

Solution
Upgrade to KDE 3.4 or apply patch.
Further details available in Customer Area

Provided and/or discovered by
Originally described by:
Evgeniy Gabrilovich and Alex Gontmakher

Reported by:
Eric Johanson

Changelog
Further details available in Customer Area

Original Advisory
KDE:
http://www.kde.org/info/security/advisory-20050316-2.txt

The Shmoo Group:
http://www.shmoo.com/idn/homograph.txt

Other references
Further details available in Customer Area

Deep Links
Links available in Customer Area