Re: on xss and its technical merit

["pdp (architect)" <pdp.gnucitizen () googlemail com>]

comments inlined

On Nov 4, 2007 8:01 PM, Volker Tanger <vtlists () wyae de> wrote:
> Greetings!
>
> On Sun, 4 Nov 2007 13:26:17 -0600
> reepex <reepex () gmail com> wrote:
> > "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.
> [...]
> > 1) XSS isnt techincal no matter how its used
> [...]
> > 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.
>
> XSS is a variant on missing or lax input verification. Thus all other
> forms of input-nonverification like buffer overflows or char(0)
> injections or the like should be handeled similarily.

agree!

> In its simplest version XSS could be used for phishing - which is bad
> enough for banking or business portals. Depending on the application
> other elevations might be possible through XSS like session stealing,
> cmd/sql injects, etc.
>
> Especially if such an elevated XSS was detected for a software it
> definitely would have a place on security mailing lists. But it should
> be more qualified than just "XSS found on ....". Just running a XSS
> scanner is lame - whereas finding out all consequences and possible
> attack vectors and maybe even posting a patch might be a worthwile
> posting.

XSS has been already detect in software... AOL Instant Messenger was
vulnerable to XSS not that long time ago. The default screen where you
type all your text is nothing more but the IE web browser. Google
GTalk and Skype also use the IE browser. The AOL IM was vulnerable to
an attack where remote users can send a specially crafted message
which will render within the context of the remote IE instance. IE
within AOL runs with full privalages, i.e there is no sandbox. This
means that you can easily start running WScript (WSH) scripts. We know
what that leads to, do we? This is a variation of XSS that effects
client-side technologies. This bug could have lead to one of the
biggest worm outbreaks ever seen. No user interaction was required in
order to launch the attack!

> Bye
>
> Volker
>
> --
>
> Volker Tanger    http://www.wyae.de/volker.tanger/
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-- 
pdp (architect) | petko d. petkov
http://www.gnucitizen.org

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