Read over the contents of https://www.acunetix.com/websitesecurity/cross-site-sc
ID: 3885073 • Letter: R
Question
Read over the contents of https://www.acunetix.com/websitesecurity/cross-site-scripting/ on Cross-site Scripting (XSS). Use this source and at least two other professional resources to identify what a Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack is and in your own words, define what constitutes a (XSS) Attack. Then describe how an XSS attack works. Read over the contents of https://www.acunetix.com/websitesecurity/cross-site-scripting/ on Cross-site Scripting (XSS). Use this source and at least two other professional resources to identify what a Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack is and in your own words, define what constitutes a (XSS) Attack. Then describe how an XSS attack works.Explanation / Answer
Answer:
Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Attack:
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks are a type of injection,vector that injects malicious code into a vulnerable web application. XSS differs from other web attack vectors (e.g., SQL injections), in that it does not directly target the application itself. Instead, the users of the web application are the ones at risk.
A successful cross site scripting attack can have devastating consequences for an online business's reputation and its relationship with its clients.
Cross site scripting attacks can be broken down into two types: stored and reflected.
Constitutes:
Cross-site scripting (XSS) is an injection attack which is carried out on Web applications that accept input, but do not properly separate data and executable code before the input is delivered back to a user’s browser.
xss attack works:
In order to run malicious JavaScript code in a victim’s browser, an attacker must first find a way to inject a payload into a web page that the victim visits. Of course, an attacker could use social engineering techniques to convince a user to visit a vulnerable page with an injected JavaScript payload.
In order for an XSS attack to take place the vulnerable website needs to directly include user input in its pages. An attacker can then insert a string that will be used within the web page and treated as code by the victim’s browser.
The following server-side pseudo-code is used to display the most recent comment on a web page.
The above script is simply printing out the latest comment from a comments database and printing the contents out to an HTML page, assuming that the comment printed out only consists of text.
The above page is vulnerable to XSS because an attacker could submit a comment that contains a malicious payload such as <script>doSomethingEvil();</script>.
Users visiting the web page will get served the following HTML page.
When the page loads in the victim’s browser, the attacker’s malicious script will execute, most often without the user realizing or being able to prevent such an attack.
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