XSS, everydayhealth.com, Cross Site Scripting, CWE-79, CAPEC-86
CWE List Full Dictionary View Development View Research View Reports About Sources Process Documents Community Related Activities Discussion List Research CWE/SANS Top 25 CWSS News Calendar Free Newsletter Compatibility Program Requirements Declarations Make a Declaration Contact Us Search the Site CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Report generated by XSS.CX at Sat Mar 12 06:30:39 CST 2011.
XSS.CX Research investigates and reports on security vulnerabilities embedded in Web Applications and Products used in wide-scale deployment.
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 defenses:
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.everydayhealth.com/ [name of an arbitrarily supplied request parameter]next
Summary
Severity:
High
Confidence:
Certain
Host:
http://www.everydayhealth.com
Path:
/
Issue detail
The name of an arbitrarily supplied request parameter is copied into the value of an HTML tag attribute which is encapsulated in double quotation marks. The payload %004d0fb"><script>alert(1)</script>06887423f3b was submitted in the name of an arbitrarily supplied request parameter. This input was echoed as 4d0fb"><script>alert(1)</script>06887423f3b in the application's response.
This proof-of-concept attack demonstrates that it is possible to inject arbitrary JavaScript into the application's response.
The application attempts to block certain characters that are often used in XSS attacks but this can be circumvented by submitting a URL-encoded NULL byte (%00) anywhere before the characters that are being blocked.
Remediation detail
NULL byte bypasses typically arise when the application is being defended by a web application firewall (WAF) that is written in native code, where strings are terminated by a NULL byte. You should fix the actual vulnerability within the application code, and if appropriate ask your WAF vendor to provide a fix for the NULL byte bypass.
Request
GET /?%004d0fb"><script>alert(1)</script>06887423f3b=1 HTTP/1.1 Host: www.everydayhealth.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/10.0.648.133 Safari/534.16 Accept: application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5 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
The value of REST URL parameter 1 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 69bf7'%3b9145bc84c3b was submitted in the REST URL parameter 1. This input was echoed as 69bf7';9145bc84c3b in the application's response.
This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.
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.
The value of REST URL parameter 2 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 5d6fb'%3bf237d1c260b was submitted in the REST URL parameter 2. This input was echoed as 5d6fb';f237d1c260b in the application's response.
This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.
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.
The value of REST URL parameter 3 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload f076f'%3b0cd54c15e81 was submitted in the REST URL parameter 3. This input was echoed as f076f';0cd54c15e81 in the application's response.
This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.
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.
The value of REST URL parameter 4 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload a29a1'%3bd0250c3653f was submitted in the REST URL parameter 4. This input was echoed as a29a1';d0250c3653f in the application's response.
This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.
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.
The value of REST URL parameter 5 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 1a96d'%3b8b2b5ec73ff was submitted in the REST URL parameter 5. This input was echoed as 1a96d';8b2b5ec73ff in the application's response.
This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.
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.
The value of REST URL parameter 1 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 914f9'%3b9c9b98fd071 was submitted in the REST URL parameter 1. This input was echoed as 914f9';9c9b98fd071 in the application's response.
This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.
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 /CMSData914f9'%3b9c9b98fd071/Flash/homepagemodule.swf HTTP/1.1 Host: www.everydayhealth.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.everydayhealth.com/ Accept: */* User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/10.0.648.133 Safari/534.16 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: .ASPXANONYMOUS=AcwXOl-L8cczZjhmYjYwNi0xYzQ4LTRjNWYtOGEzMC0yNjEwZjliZjc0MDQ1; ASP.NET_SessionId=eoe5vzrlwl54nm55s3mrfr55; __utmz=104244948.1299932909.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none); __utma=104244948.638952821.1299932909.1299932909.1299932909.1; __utmc=104244948; __utmb=104244948.1.10.1299932909
Response
HTTP/1.1 404 File Not Found Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:28:34 GMT Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 ServerID: : USNJWWEB12 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727 Cache-Control: private Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 16209
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
The value of REST URL parameter 2 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 5ccd2'%3b78f559917c8 was submitted in the REST URL parameter 2. This input was echoed as 5ccd2';78f559917c8 in the application's response.
This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.
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 /CMSData/Flash5ccd2'%3b78f559917c8/homepagemodule.swf HTTP/1.1 Host: www.everydayhealth.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.everydayhealth.com/ Accept: */* User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/10.0.648.133 Safari/534.16 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: .ASPXANONYMOUS=AcwXOl-L8cczZjhmYjYwNi0xYzQ4LTRjNWYtOGEzMC0yNjEwZjliZjc0MDQ1; ASP.NET_SessionId=eoe5vzrlwl54nm55s3mrfr55; __utmz=104244948.1299932909.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none); __utma=104244948.638952821.1299932909.1299932909.1299932909.1; __utmc=104244948; __utmb=104244948.1.10.1299932909
Response
HTTP/1.1 404 File Not Found Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:28:41 GMT Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 ServerID: : USNJWWEB12 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727 Cache-Control: private Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 16205
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
The value of REST URL parameter 3 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 81548'%3bad67c6ee2ba was submitted in the REST URL parameter 3. This input was echoed as 81548';ad67c6ee2ba in the application's response.
This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.
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 /CMSData/Flash/homepagemodule.swf81548'%3bad67c6ee2ba HTTP/1.1 Host: www.everydayhealth.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.everydayhealth.com/ Accept: */* User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/10.0.648.133 Safari/534.16 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: .ASPXANONYMOUS=AcwXOl-L8cczZjhmYjYwNi0xYzQ4LTRjNWYtOGEzMC0yNjEwZjliZjc0MDQ1; ASP.NET_SessionId=eoe5vzrlwl54nm55s3mrfr55; __utmz=104244948.1299932909.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none); __utma=104244948.638952821.1299932909.1299932909.1299932909.1; __utmc=104244948; __utmb=104244948.1.10.1299932909
Response
HTTP/1.1 404 File Not Found Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:28:48 GMT Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 ServerID: : USNJWWEB12 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727 Cache-Control: private Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 16209
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
The value of REST URL parameter 1 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 95770'%3bf05b4f13935 was submitted in the REST URL parameter 1. This input was echoed as 95770';f05b4f13935 in the application's response.
This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.
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 /ads.htm95770'%3bf05b4f13935 HTTP/1.1 Host: www.everydayhealth.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.everydayhealth.com/ User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/10.0.648.133 Safari/534.16 Accept: application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5 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: .ASPXANONYMOUS=AcwXOl-L8cczZjhmYjYwNi0xYzQ4LTRjNWYtOGEzMC0yNjEwZjliZjc0MDQ1; ASP.NET_SessionId=eoe5vzrlwl54nm55s3mrfr55; __utmz=104244948.1299932909.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none); __utma=104244948.638952821.1299932909.1299932909.1299932909.1; __utmc=104244948; __utmb=104244948.1.10.1299932909
Response
HTTP/1.1 404 File Not Found Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:28:10 GMT Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 ServerID: : USNJWWEB12 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727 Cache-Control: private Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 16109
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
The value of REST URL parameter 1 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload fd132'%3baa06b079b2e was submitted in the REST URL parameter 1. This input was echoed as fd132';aa06b079b2e in the application's response.
This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.
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.
The value of REST URL parameter 1 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 3dd89'%3bdfdb4e0e909 was submitted in the REST URL parameter 1. This input was echoed as 3dd89';dfdb4e0e909 in the application's response.
This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.
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 /js.axd3dd89'%3bdfdb4e0e909?path=%2fWebResource.axd%3fd%3dKC9CXtv0LwWT0F6Rbo3BL6_32xgVMXTPfsqGApNPDVBRpQ1CvxPg7UipW14gvs0GTP2-6SM0M69GzoiVP3p0CfkGja41%26amp%3bt%3d634213770349781014,%2fScriptResource.axd%3fd%3dWRj70wjQu9bd8N8c5QM_bbpknCFd5KzVrD8j2eju5CWiLutm7NfnHcN5r-NY8z448DTs9WJz-R61PbjGz5X_IoG8hU59DTzL3TKbnTzSVSatI7PQtPeWpk9BMakjIq8SPYjOfzTXRDiukFa7hA8dkPhIpdo1%26amp%3bt%3d270a737e,%2fScriptResource.axd%3fd%3d2iLsV7SpN0LS-1dlLlUBXD4Ho9cxlr2CkkCGqffqJiuX2HbP1GbplJhCn3ImPmgio1R7zmg1d_8aYjBHU76D_a_it4SUG7DLNxkHvW6nQLbiYcE7bnYzeMmFlBd_q42M_WWZXrzHY8Pl4_3d3pbLaLYSKw5N4zaODdE1cRt_Re-qcyfG0%26amp%3bt%3d270a737e,%2fjs%2fcommon%2fflash.js,http%3a%2f%2fconnect.facebook.net%2fen_US%2fall.js%23xfbml%3d1,http%3a%2f%2fplatform.twitter.com%2fwidgets.js, HTTP/1.1 Host: www.everydayhealth.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.everydayhealth.com/ User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/10.0.648.133 Safari/534.16 Accept: */* 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: .ASPXANONYMOUS=AcwXOl-L8cczZjhmYjYwNi0xYzQ4LTRjNWYtOGEzMC0yNjEwZjliZjc0MDQ1; ASP.NET_SessionId=eoe5vzrlwl54nm55s3mrfr55; __utmz=104244948.1299932909.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none); __utma=104244948.638952821.1299932909.1299932909.1299932909.1; __utmc=104244948; __utmb=104244948.1.10.1299932909
Response
HTTP/1.1 404 File Not Found Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:28:32 GMT Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 ServerID: : USNJWWEB12 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727 Cache-Control: private Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 17553
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
2. ASP.NET ViewState without MAC enabledpreviousnext
Summary
Severity:
Low
Confidence:
Certain
Host:
http://www.everydayhealth.com
Path:
/
Issue description
The ViewState is a mechanism built in to the ASP.NET platform for persisting elements of the user interface and other data across successive requests. The data to be persisted is serialised by the server and transmitted via a hidden form field. When it is POSTed back to the server, the ViewState parameter is deserialised and the data is retrieved.
By default, the serialised value is signed by the server to prevent tampering by the user; however, this behaviour can be disabled by setting the Page.EnableViewStateMac property to false. If this is done, then an attacker can modify the contents of the ViewState and cause arbitrary data to be deserialised and processed by the server. If the ViewState contains any items that are critical to the server's processing of the request, then this may result in a security exposure.
You should review the contents of the deserialised ViewState to determine whether it contains any critical items that can be manipulated to attack the application.
Issue remediation
There is no good reason to disable the default ASP.NET behaviour in which the ViewState is signed to prevent tampering. To ensure that this occurs, you should set the Page.EnableViewStateMac property to true on any pages where the ViewState is not currently signed.
Request
GET / HTTP/1.1 Host: www.everydayhealth.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/10.0.648.133 Safari/534.16 Accept: application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5 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
When an application includes a script from an external domain, this script is executed by the browser within the security context of the invoking application. The script can therefore do anything that the application's own scripts can do, such as accessing application data and performing actions within the context of the current user.
If you include a script from an external domain, then you are trusting that domain with the data and functionality of your application, and you are trusting the domain's own security to prevent an attacker from modifying the script to perform malicious actions within your application.
Issue remediation
Scripts should not be included from untrusted domains. If you have a requirement which a third-party script appears to fulfil, then you should ideally copy the contents of that script onto your own domain and include it from there. If that is not possible (e.g. for licensing reasons) then you should consider reimplementing the script's functionality within your own code.
Request
GET / HTTP/1.1 Host: www.everydayhealth.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/10.0.648.133 Safari/534.16 Accept: application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5 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
The cookie does not appear to contain a session token, which may reduce the risk associated with this issue. You should review the contents of the cookie to determine its function.
Issue background
If the HttpOnly attribute is set on a cookie, then the cookie's value cannot be read or set by client-side JavaScript. This measure can prevent certain client-side attacks, such as cross-site scripting, from trivially capturing the cookie's value via an injected script.
Issue remediation
There is usually no good reason not to set the HttpOnly flag on all cookies. Unless you specifically require legitimate client-side scripts within your application to read or set a cookie's value, you should set the HttpOnly flag by including this attribute within the relevant Set-cookie directive.
You should be aware that the restrictions imposed by the HttpOnly flag can potentially be circumvented in some circumstances, and that numerous other serious attacks can be delivered by client-side script injection, aside from simple cookie stealing.
Request
GET / HTTP/1.1 Host: www.everydayhealth.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/10.0.648.133 Safari/534.16 Accept: application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5 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
If a web response states that it contains HTML content but does not specify a character set, then the browser may analyse the HTML and attempt to determine which character set it appears to be using. Even if the majority of the HTML actually employs a standard character set such as UTF-8, the presence of non-standard characters anywhere in the response may cause the browser to interpret the content using a different character set. This can have unexpected results, and can lead to cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in which non-standard encodings like UTF-7 can be used to bypass the application's defensive filters.
In most cases, the absence of a charset directive does not constitute a security flaw, particularly if the response contains static content. You should review the contents of the response and the context in which it appears to determine whether any vulnerability exists.
Issue remediation
For every response containing HTML content, the application should include within the Content-type header a directive specifying a standard recognised character set, for example charset=ISO-8859-1.
Request
GET /ads.htm HTTP/1.1 Host: www.everydayhealth.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.everydayhealth.com/ User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/10.0.648.133 Safari/534.16 Accept: application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5 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: .ASPXANONYMOUS=AcwXOl-L8cczZjhmYjYwNi0xYzQ4LTRjNWYtOGEzMC0yNjEwZjliZjc0MDQ1; ASP.NET_SessionId=eoe5vzrlwl54nm55s3mrfr55; __utmz=104244948.1299932909.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none); __utma=104244948.638952821.1299932909.1299932909.1299932909.1; __utmc=104244948; __utmb=104244948.1.10.1299932909
Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Length: 1007 Content-Type: text/html Last-Modified: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 22:02:56 GMT Accept-Ranges: bytes ETag: "0e8ca28369ecb1:2dc4" Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 ServerID: : USNJWWEB12 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:28:04 GMT