XSS (Cross-site Scripting) allows an attacker to execute a dynamic script (Javascript, VbScript) in the context of the application. This allows several different attack opportunities, mostly hijacking the current session of the user or changing the look of the page by changing the HTML on the fly to steal the user's credentials. This happens because the input entered by a user has been interpreted as HTML/Javascript/VbScript by the browser.
XSS targets the users of the application instead of the server. Although this is a limitation, since it allows attackers to hijack other users' session, an attacker might attack an administrator to gain full control over the application.
Impact
There are many different attacks that can be leveraged through the use of XSS, including:
Hi-jacking users' active session
Changing the look of the page within the victims browser.
Mounting a successful phishing attack.
Intercept data and perform man-in-the-middle attacks.
Remedy
The issue occurs because the browser interprets the input as active HTML, Javascript or VbScript. To avoid this, all input and output from the application should be filtered. Output should be filtered according to the output format and location. Typically the output location is HTML. Where the output is HTML ensure that all active content is removed prior to its presentation to the server.
Prior to sanitizing user input, ensure you have a pre-defined list of both expected and acceptable characters with which you populate a white-list. This list needs only be defined once and should be used to sanitize and validate all subsequent input.
There are a number of pre-defined, well structured white-list libraries available for many different environments, good examples of these include, OWASP Reform and Microsoft Anti Cross-site Scripting libraries are good examples.
GET /science/%22%20stYle=%22x:expre/**/ssion(netsparker(9)) HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) Cache-Control: no-cache Host: www.sciencedirect.com Cookie: EUID=70c37592-7517-11e0-b479-00000aac4911; MIAMISESSION=70c3518e-7517-11e0-b479-00000aac4911:3481833295; MIAMIAUTH=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; TARGET_URL=fcf74dd786744d87fbaaaf8652a764ab4a79b0d3ed681139e91069237606310502bcc8354fa578989ba26f264adec9a04fcce6f2e9ae016ea87c0ff4f4a9d18d Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Connection: Keep-Alive
Response
HTTP/1.0 200 OK Date: Mon, 02 May 2011 23:55:06 GMT Last-Modified: Mon, 02 May 2011 23:55:06 GMT Set-Cookie: MIAMISESSION=70c3518e-7517-11e0-b479-00000aac4911:3481833306; path=/; domain=.sciencedirect.com; HttpOnly;,TARGET_URL=fcf74dd786744d87fbaaaf8652a764ab4a79b0d3ed681139e910692376063105d378ae6320099575659bd887a3debcea558edf00a23d61f4cccdc153aa1bf66df4c3b1a73b5dbaa69371afd24fd9d610; path=/; domain=.sciencedirect.com; HttpOnly; Content-Type: text/html Expires: Tue, 01 Jan 1980 04:00:00 GMT X-RE-Ref: 0 -1061882892 Server: www.sciencedirect.com 9999 138.12.6.73:443 P3P: CP="IDC DSP LAW ADM DEV TAI PSA PSD IVA IVD CON HIS TEL OUR DEL SAM OTR IND OTC"
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Response
HTTP/1.0 200 OK Date: Mon, 02 May 2011 23:55:13 GMT Last-Modified: Mon, 02 May 2011 23:55:13 GMT Set-Cookie: MIAMISESSION=70c3518e-7517-11e0-b479-00000aac4911:3481833313; path=/; domain=.sciencedirect.com; HttpOnly;,TARGET_URL=fcf74dd786744d87fbaaaf8652a764ab4a79b0d3ed681139e910692376063105e8c4327fbc69e6a7f2c142869cb15f173bf01432f7747bae6572b2170a9b64be299801d38ed92af145be13f577135d94753451b982ae45061b897ab72474bd1f931dc49eb0a55baa; path=/; domain=.sciencedirect.com; HttpOnly; Content-Type: text/html Expires: Tue, 01 Jan 1980 04:00:00 GMT X-RE-Ref: 0 -1054370352 Server: www.sciencedirect.com 9999 138.12.6.73:443 P3P: CP="IDC DSP LAW ADM DEV TAI PSA PSD IVA IVD CON HIS TEL OUR DEL SAM OTR IND OTC"
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A Cookie was not marked as secure and transmitted over HTTPS. This means the cookie could potentially be stolen by an attacker who can successfully intercept and decrypt the traffic or following a successful MITM (Man in the middle) attack.
Impact
This cookie will be transmitted over a HTTP connection, therefore if this cookie is important (such as a session cookie) an attacker might intercept it and hijack a victim's session. If the attacker can carry out a MITM attack, he/she can force victim to make a HTTP request to steal the cookie.
Actions to Take
See the remedy for solution.
Mark all cookies used within the application as secure. (If the cookie is not related to authentication or does not carry any personal information you do not have to mark it as secure.))
Remedy
Mark all cookies used within the application as secure.
Required Skills for Successful Exploitation
To exploit this issue, the attacker needs to be able to intercept traffic. This generally requires local access to the web server or victim's network. Attackers need to be understand layer 2, have physical access to systems either as way points for the traffic, or locally (have gained access to) to a system between the victim and the web server.
"Auto Complete" was enabled in one or more of the form fields. These were either "password" fields or important fields such as "Credit Card".
Impact
Data entered in these fields will be cached by the browser. An attacker who can access the victim's browser could steal this information. This is especially important if the application is commonly used in shared computers such as cyber cafes or airport terminals.
Remedy
Add the attribute autocomplete="off" to the form tag or to individual "input" fields.
Actions to Take
See the remedy for the solution.
Find all instances of inputs which store private data and disable autocomplete. Fields which contain data such as "Credit Card" or "CCV" type data should not be cached. You can allow the application to cache usernames and remember passwords, however, in most cases this is not recommended.
Re-scan the application after addressing the identified issues to ensure that all of the fixes have been applied properly.
Required Skills for Successful Exploitation
Dumping all data from a browser can be fairly easy and there exist a number of automated tools to undertake this. Where the attacker cannot dump the data, he/she could still browse the recently visited websites and activate the auto-complete feature to see previously entered values.