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CAPEC Details

Name

XSS Through HTTP Query Strings

Likelyhood of attack	Typical severity
High	High

Summary

An adversary embeds malicious script code in the parameters of an HTTP query string and convinces a victim to submit the HTTP request that contains the query string to a vulnerable web application. The web application then procedes to use the values parameters without properly validation them first and generates the HTML code that will be executed by the victim's browser.

Prerequisites

Target client software must allow scripting such as JavaScript. Server software must allow display of remote generated HTML without sufficient input or output validation.

Execution Flow

Step	Phase	Description	Techniques
1	Explore	[Spider] Using a browser or an automated tool, an attacker follows all public links on a web site. They record all the links they find.	Use a spidering tool to follow and record all links. Make special note of any links that include parameters in the URL. Use a proxy tool to record all links visited during a manual traversal of the web application. Make special note of any links that include parameters in the URL. Manual traversal of this type is frequently necessary to identify forms that are GET method forms rather than POST forms. Use a browser to manually explore the website and analyze how it is constructed. Many browser's plugins are available to facilitate the analysis or automate the URL discovery.
2	Experiment	[Attempt variations on input parameters] Possibly using an automated tool, an attacker requests variations on the URLs they spidered before. They send parameters that include variations of payloads. They record all the responses from the server that include unmodified versions of their script.	Use a list of XSS probe strings to inject in parameters of known URLs. If possible, the probe strings contain a unique identifier. Use a proxy tool to record results of manual input of XSS probes in known URLs.
3	Exploit	[Steal session IDs, credentials, page content, etc.] As the attacker succeeds in exploiting the vulnerability, they can choose to steal user's credentials in order to reuse or to analyze them later on.	Develop malicious JavaScript that is injected through vectors identified during the Experiment Phase and loaded by the victim's browser and sends document information to the attacker. Develop malicious JavaScript that injected through vectors identified during the Experiment Phase and takes commands from an attacker's server and then causes the browser to execute appropriately.
4	Exploit	[Forceful browsing] When the attacker targets the current application or another one (through CSRF vulnerabilities), the user will then be the one who perform the attacks without being aware of it. These attacks are mostly targeting application logic flaws, but it can also be used to create a widespread attack against a particular website on the user's current network (Internet or not).	Develop malicious JavaScript that is injected through vectors identified during the Experiment Phase and loaded by the victim's browser and performs actions on the same web site Develop malicious JavaScript that injected through vectors identified during the Experiment Phase and takes commands from an attacker's server and then causes the browser to execute request to other web sites (especially the web applications that have CSRF vulnerabilities).
5	Exploit	[Content spoofing] By manipulating the content, the attacker targets the information that the user would like to get from the website.	Develop malicious JavaScript that is injected through vectors identified during the Experiment Phase and loaded by the victim's browser and exposes attacker-modified invalid information to the user on the current web page.

Solutions

Design: Use browser technologies that do not allow client side scripting. Design: Utilize strict type, character, and encoding enforcement Design: Server side developers should not proxy content via XHR or other means, if a http proxy for remote content is setup on the server side, the client's browser has no way of discerning where the data is originating from. Implementation: Ensure all content that is delivered to client is sanitized against an acceptable content specification. Implementation: Perform input validation for all remote content, including remote and user-generated content Implementation: Perform output validation for all remote content. Implementation: Disable scripting languages such as JavaScript in browser Implementation: Session tokens for specific host Implementation: Patching software. There are many attack vectors for XSS on the client side and the server side. Many vulnerabilities are fixed in service packs for browser, web servers, and plug in technologies, staying current on patch release that deal with XSS countermeasures mitigates this. Implementation: Privileges are constrained, if a script is loaded, ensure system runs in chroot jail or other limited authority mode

Related Weaknesses

CWE ID	Description
CWE-80	Improper Neutralization of Script-Related HTML Tags in a Web Page (Basic XSS)

Related CAPECS

CAPEC ID	Description
CAPEC-588	This type of attack is a form of Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) where a malicious script is inserted into the client-side HTML being parsed by a web browser. Content served by a vulnerable web application includes script code used to manipulate the Document Object Model (DOM). This script code either does not properly validate input, or does not perform proper output encoding, thus creating an opportunity for an adversary to inject a malicious script launch a XSS attack. A key distinction between other XSS attacks and DOM-based attacks is that in other XSS attacks, the malicious script runs when the vulnerable web page is initially loaded, while a DOM-based attack executes sometime after the page loads. Another distinction of DOM-based attacks is that in some cases, the malicious script is never sent to the vulnerable web server at all. An attack like this is guaranteed to bypass any server-side filtering attempts to protect users.
CAPEC-591	This type of attack is a form of Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) where a malicious script is "reflected" off a vulnerable web application and then executed by a victim's browser. The process starts with an adversary delivering a malicious script to a victim and convincing the victim to send the script to the vulnerable web application. The most common method of this is through a phishing email where the adversary embeds the malicious script with a URL that the victim then clicks on. In processing the subsequent request, the vulnerable web application incorrectly considers the malicious script as valid input and uses it to creates a reposnse that is then sent back to the victim. To launch a successful Reflected XSS attack, an adversary looks for places where user-input is used directly in the generation of a response. This often involves elements that are not expected to host scripts such as image tags (<img>), or the addition of event attibutes such as onload and onmouseover. These elements are often not subject to the same input validation, output encoding, and other content filtering and checking routines.
CAPEC-592	This type of attack is a form of Cross-site Scripting (XSS) where a malicious script is persistenly "stored" within the data storage of a vulnerable web application. Initially presented by an adversary to the vulnerable web application, the malicious script is incorrectly considered valid input and is not properly encoded by the web application. A victim is then convinced to use the web application in a way that creates a response that includes the malicious script. This response is subsequently sent to the victim and the malicious script is executed by the victim's browser. To launch a successful Stored XSS attack, an adversary looks for places where stored input data is used in the generation of a response. This often involves elements that are not expected to host scripts such as image tags (<img>), or the addition of event attibutes such as onload and onmouseover. These elements are often not subject to the same input validation, output encoding, and other content filtering and checking routines.