Hunting Down Easter Eggs Online by Exploiting Cross-browser Compatibility Issues: The Konami Code Experiment
Name
Risko Ruus
Abstract
The Konami Code is an input combination (↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A) used initially in a 1986 video game called Gradius for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was left there accidentally by the developer, who used the code during testing to give the player all the power-ups. The players discovered it, shared it and since then it has been featured in many sequels and other video games. Today there exist several Web pages that reveal an Easter egg when a visitor inputs the Konami Code through its computer’s keyboard. Typically the Easter eggs are implemented using AJAX, which means that after the Konami Code is entered, Document Object Model of the Web page is modified to reveal the Easter egg. However, since many Web sites suffer from Cross-Browser Compatibility (CBC) issues, the code might not function properly on all Web browsers. By using the Konami Code scenario as a test case, we show how such CBC issues can be exploited using our tool capable of automatically detecting Konami Codes from Web sites. In the case study we apply our program, which uses WebDriver framework, to a list of the world’s most popular Web sites. Our goal is to identify their CBC issues with Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome Web browsers with respect to the Konami Code. By exploiting our program on the particular test scenario, we are not only capable of identifying Web sites which use Konami Code to reveal Easter eggs, but also demonstrate that our method could be used for reporting functional CBC issues on Web sites.
Graduation Thesis language
English
Graduation Thesis type
Bachelor - Information Technology
Supervisor(s)
Peep Küngas
Defence year
2011