Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Google Desktop allows remote attackers to bypass protection schemes and inject arbitrary web script or HTML, and possibly gain full access to the system, by using an XSS vulnerability in google.com to extract the signature for the internal web server, then calling the "under" parameter in Advanced Search with the proper signature.

Google Desktop allows user-assisted remote attackers to execute arbitrary programs via a man-in-the-middle attack that injects JavaScript, a www.google.com search IFRAME, and a META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" that targets a www.google.com search for a local .exe file, which is displayed in the "results stored on your computer" portion of the search results, and when clicked invokes Google Desktop to execute this file.