on xss and its technical merit

[reepex <reepex () gmail com>]

Pdp architect and I have been emailing back and forth about whether xss has
a place in fd, bugtraq, or the security research area at all.  He decided
that we should start a discussion about in on here and gets peoples
unmoderated opinion.  This discussion should not concern whether its
important due to stealing bank info, paypal, whatever it should only stick
to xss as a pure research area.  Or as pdp described it:

"we are talking about whether XSS is as technical as other security
disciplines. We are also talking about whether it should have a deserved an
recognized place among FD readers and contributers. however, the topic wont
cover only whether you can detect or inject  XSS, this is lame. it will
cover the whole 9 yards... pretty much all the topics covered inside the XSS
book."

My ideas on the topic are

1) XSS isnt techincal no matter how its used
2) people who use xss on pentests/real hacking/anything but phishing are
lame and only use it because they cannot write real exploits (non-web) or
couldnt find any other web bugs (sql injection, cmd exec,file include,
whatever)
3) XSS does not have a place on this list or any other security list and i
remember when the idea of making a seperate bugtraq for xss was proposed and
i still think it should be done.
4) if you go into a pentest/audit and all you get out is xss then its a
failed pentest and the customer should get a refund.
5) publishing xss shows your weakness and that you dont have the ability to
find actual bugs ( b/c xss isnt a vuln its crap )

i think pdp is going to respond first. should be fun ;)

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