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What makes an input vulnerable to XSS?

I've been reading about XSS and I made a simple form with a text and submit input, but when I execute <script>alert();</script> on it, nothing happens, the server gets that string and that's all.

What do I have to do for make it vulnerable?? (then I'll learn what I shouldn't do hehe)

Cheers.

like image 754
vtortola Avatar asked May 25 '10 15:05

vtortola


3 Answers

Indeed just let the server output it so that the input string effectively get embedded in HTML source which get returned to the client.

PHP example:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
    <head><title>XSS test</title></head>
    <body>
        <form><input type="text" name="xss"><input type="submit"></form>
        <p>Result: <?= $_GET['xss'] ?></p>
    </body>
</html>

JSP example:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
    <head><title>XSS test</title></head>
    <body>
        <form><input type="text" name="xss"><input type="submit"></form>
        <p>Result: ${param.xss}</p>
    </body>
</html>

Alternatively you can redisplay the value in the input elements, that's also often seen:

<input type="text" name="xss" value="<?= $_GET['xss'] ?>">

resp.

<input type="text" name="xss" value="${param.xss}">

This way "weird" attack strings like "/><script>alert('xss')</script><br class=" will work because the server will render it after all as

<input type="text" name="xss" value=""/><script>alert('xss')</script><br class="">

XSS-prevention solutions are among others htmlspecialchars() and fn:escapeXml() for PHP and JSP respectively. Those will replace among others <, > and " by &lt;, &gt; and &quot; so that enduser input doesn't end up to be literally embedded in HTML source but instead just got displayed as it was entered.

like image 151
BalusC Avatar answered Oct 26 '22 08:10

BalusC


Have the server output the input back to the client.

like image 23
Quentin Avatar answered Oct 26 '22 08:10

Quentin


You should "inject" the script. So if you have a text-input, you should put in the form:

" /> <script>alert();</script>

This way you first close the attribute of the existing HTML and then inject your own code. The idea is to escape out the quotes.

like image 41
Henri Avatar answered Oct 26 '22 08:10

Henri