This article is a list of different ways to get window references. When doing client side security, getting a reference to a window is big way to cause havoc. First, looking at the window. Using window.open() on both a new window and an existing window. Second, if you're inside of a popup window you can get a reference to the parent with window.opener(), even with a cross domain setup. Next, we have iFrames! window.top can get the reference to the top level window when in an iFrame. window.frames shows all frames within a given window. Additionally, if it's named, then windows.frames['frameName'] can be used too. A window object can be sent via a postMessage even in the cross domain case. If a window has the same domain as another window, you can reference globals on that window. Most of these rules can be chained together as well. The author mentions that it's not always possible to get a reference to something. In particular, a cross-domain iframe or an iframe that opens a popup window. Good article on a very esoteric JavaScript concept!