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.
The Server responded with an HTTP status 500. This indicates that there is a server-side error. Reasons may vary. The behavior should be analysed carefully. If Netsparker is able to find a security issue in the same resource it will report this as a separate vulnerability.
Impact
The impact may vary depending on the condition. Generally this indicates poor coding practices, not enough error checking, sanitization and whitelisting. However there might be a bigger issue such as SQL Injection. If that's the case Netsparker will check for other possible issues and report them separately.
Remedy
Analyse this issue and review the application code in order to handle unexpected errors, this should be a generic practice which does not disclose further information upon an error. All errors should be handled server side only.
GET /ContractsAdministration/index.cfm?a=a&fuseaction=%0D%0Ans:netsparker056650=vuln&secID=16 HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30) Cache-Control: no-cache Host: tomcat2.dot.state.ga.us Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Connection: Keep-Alive
Response
HTTP/1.0 500 Internal Server Error server-error: true Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:31:56 GMT Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Server: JRun Web Server
The variable "attributes.fuseaction" is not available or the Fusebox framework could not find the circuit you requested: "". If you think this error is incorrect, turn off the Fusebox suppress error messages flag by setting fusebox.SuppressErrors to FALSE, and you will receive ColdFusion's "normal" error output.
<!-- " ---></TD></TD></TD></TH></TH></TH></TR></TR></TR></TABLE></TABLE></TABLE></A></ABBREV></ACRONYM></ADDRESS></APPLET></AU></B></BANNER></BIG></BLINK></BLOCKQUOTE></BQ></CAPTION></CENTER></CITE></CODE></COMMENT></DEL></DFN></DIR></DIV></DL></EM></FIG></FN></FONT></FORM></FRAME></FRAMESET></H1></H2></H3></H4></H5></H6></HEAD></I></INS></KBD></LISTING></MAP></MARQUEE></MENU></MULTICOL></NOBR></NOFRAMES></NOSCRIPT></NOTE></OL></P></PARAM></PERSON></PLAINTEXT></PRE></Q></S></SAMP></SCRIPT></SELECT></SMALL></STRIKE></STRONG></SUB></SUP></TABLE></TD></TEXTAREA></TH></TITLE></TR></TT></U></UL></VAR></WBR></XMP> <font face="arial"></font> <html> <head> <title>Error Occurred While Processing Request</title> <script language="JavaScript"> function showHide(targetName) { if( document.getElementById ) { // NS6+ target = document.getElementById(targetName); } else if( document.all ) { // IE4+ target = document.all[targetName]; } if( target ) { if( target.style.display == "none" ) { target.style.display = "inline"; } else { target.style.display = "none"; } } } </script> </head> <body> <table border="1" cellpadding="3" bordercolor="#000808" bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <tr> <td bgcolor="#000066"> <font style="COLOR: white; FONT: 11pt/13pt verdana" color="white"> Error Occurred While Processing Request </font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana"> <table width="500" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"> <tr> <td id="tableProps2" align="left" valign="middle" width="500"> <h1 id="textSection1" style="COLOR: black; FONT: 13pt/15pt verdana"> Invalid list index 2. </h1> </td> </tr> <tr> <td id="tablePropsWidth" width="400" colspan="2"> <font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana"> In function ListGetAt(list, index [, delimiters]), the value of index, 2, is not a valid as the first argument (this list has 1 elements).&nbsp;Valid indexes are in the range 1 through the number of elements in the list. </font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height> </td> </tr>
<tr> <td colspan="2"> <font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana"> Please try the following: <ul> <li>Enable Robust Exception Information to provide greater detail about the source of errors. In the Administrator, click Debugging & Logging > Debugging Settings, and select the Robust Exception Information option.</li> <li>Check the <a href='http://www.macromedia.com/go/proddoc_getdoc' target="new">ColdFusion documentation</a> to verify that you are using the correct syntax.</li> <li>Search the <a href='http://www.macromedia.com/support/coldfusion/' target="new">Knowledge Base</a> to find a solution to your problem.</li> </ul> <p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td><font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana">Browser </td> <td><font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana">Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana">Remote Address </td> <td><font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana">173.193.214.243</td> </tr> <tr> <td><font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana">Referrer </td> <td><font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana"></td> </tr> <tr> <td><font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana">Date/Time </td> <td><font style="COLOR: black; FONT: 8pt/11pt verdana">30-Apr-11 08:31 AM</td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </body></html>
The error message may disclose sensitive information and this information can be used by an attacker to mount new attacks or to enlarge the attack surface. In rare conditions this may be a clue for an SQL Injection vulnerability. Most of the time Netsparker will detect and report that problem separately.
Remedy
Do not provide any error messages on production environments. Save error messages with a reference number to a backend storage such as a text file or database, then show this number and a static user-friendly error message to the user.
SQL Injection occurs when data input for example by a user is interpreted as a SQL command rather than normal data by the backend database. However this issue could not be confirmed by Netsparker. Netsparker believes that this was not an SQL Injection however there were some indications of a possible SQL Injection. There can be numerous reasons for Netsparker not being able to confirm it. We strongly recommend investigating the issue manually. You can also consider sending the details of this issue to us, so we can address this issue for the next time and give you a more precise result.
Impact
Depending on the backend database, the database connection settings and the operating system, an attacker can mount one or more of the following type of attacks successfully:
Reading, Updating and Deleting arbitrary data from the database
Executing commands on the underlying operating system
Reading, Updating and Deleting arbitrary tables from the database
Remedy
A robust method for mitigating the threat of SQL Injection based vulnerabilities is to use parameterized queries (prepared statements). Almost all modern languages provide built in libraries for this. Wherever possible do not create dynamic SQL queries or SQL queries with string concatenation.
Required Skills for Successful Exploitation
There are numerous freely available tools to exploit SQL Injection vulnerabilities. This is a complex area with many dependencies, however it should be noted that the numerous resources available in this area have raised both attacker awareness of the issues and their ability to discover and leverage them. SQL Injection is one of the most common web application vulnerabilities.
Netsparker found e-mail addresses on the web site.
Impact
E-mail addresses discovered within the application can be used by both spam email engines and also brute force tools. Furthermore valid email addresses may lead to social engineering attacks .
Remedy
Use generic email addresses such as contact@ or info@ for general communications, remove user/people specific e-mail addresses from the web site, should this be required use submission forms for this purpose.
GET /ContractsAdministration/index.cfm?a=a&fuseaction=dynamic.section&secID=16 HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30) Cache-Control: no-cache Host: tomcat2.dot.state.ga.us Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Connection: Keep-Alive
Response
HTTP/1.0 200 OK Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:31:46 GMT Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Server: JRun Web Server
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"><html><head> <title>GDOT-Office of Construction Bidding Administration</title> <meta name="description" content=""> <meta name="keywords" content=""> <style>.pageHead { margin: 0; padding: 0; color: #000099; background-color: #fff; font-size: 1.75em; text-align: center; font-weight:bold; text-decoration: underline;}</style> <!--#include virtual="http://www.dot.state.ga.us/scripts/includes/legacy_meta_include.shtml"--> <!--#include virtual="http://www.dot.state.ga.us/scripts/includes/legacy_opener.shtml"--> <script type="text/javascript" src="jsCss/externalLinks.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="jsCss/contracts.css" /> </HEAD><BODY> <!-- head was closed and body opened --><div> <!-- Place your content below this line --><div align="center"> <!-- <img src="images/header-ca.jpg" width="555" height="38" alt="" border="0"><br>--> <span class="pageHead">Office of Construction Bidding Administration</span><br /> <h1>Expedite Software</h1> <img src="images/blueline.jpg" width="592" height="11" alt="" border="0"></div>
<!-- this directory: /opt/jrun4/servers/default/cfusion-ear/cfusion-war/ContractsAdministration/index.cfm; this path: http://www.cloverleaf.net/cgi-bin/expedite/get-expedite.pl collapsed: http://www.cloverleaf.net/cgi-bin/expedite/get-expedite.pl --> <a href="http://www.cloverleaf.net/cgi-bin/expedite/get-expedite.pl" class="extLink"><img src="images/download.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="Download" /> Download Trns*Port Expedite for Windows</a>
<p><strong>PLEASE NOTE:</strong> Beginning with the August 20, 2010 Letting, a new version of Expedite, 5.9a, is required. Version 5.7a will no longer be accepted after the July 16, 2010 Letting.<br />
GET /ContractsAdministration/index.cfm?a=a&fuseaction=dynamic.section&secID=16 HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30) Cache-Control: no-cache Host: tomcat2.dot.state.ga.us Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Connection: Keep-Alive
Response
HTTP/1.0 200 OK Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:31:46 GMT Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Server: JRun Web Server
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"><html><head> <title>GDOT-Office of Construction Bidding Administration</title> <meta name="description" content=""> <meta name="keywords" content=""> <style>.pageHead { margin: 0; padding: 0; color: #000099; background-color: #fff; font-size: 1.75em; text-align: center; font-weight:bold; text-decoration: underline;}</style> <!--#include virtual="http://www.dot.state.ga.us/scripts/includes/legacy_meta_include.shtml"--> <!--#include virtual="http://www.dot.state.ga.us/scripts/includes/legacy_opener.shtml"--> <script type="text/javascript" src="jsCss/externalLinks.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="jsCss/contracts.css" /> </HEAD><BODY> <!-- head was closed and body opened --><div> <!-- Place your content below this line --><div align="center"> <!-- <img src="images/header-ca.jpg" width="555" height="38" alt="" border="0"><br>--> <span class="pageHead">Office of Construction Bidding Administration</span><br /> <h1>Expedite Software</h1> <img src="images/blueline.jpg" width="592" height="11" alt="" border="0"></div>
<!-- this directory: /opt/jrun4/servers/default/cfusion-ear/cfusion-war/ContractsAdministration/index.cfm; this path: http://www.cloverleaf.net/cgi-bin/expedite/get-expedite.pl collapsed: http://www.cloverleaf.net/cgi-bin/expedite/get-expedite.pl --> <a href="http://www.cloverleaf.net/cgi-bin/expedite/get-expedite.pl" class="extLink"><img src="images/download.gif" width="16" height="16" alt="Download" /> Download Trns*Port Expedite for Windows</a>
<p><strong>PLEASE NOTE:</strong> Beginning with the August 20, 2010 Letting, a new version of Expedite, 5.9a, is required. Version 5.7a will no longer be accepted after the July 16, 2010 Letting.<br />