It is an informational message with a simple alert. This difference makes JavaScript encoding a less viable weapon in our fight against XSS. How To Prevent DOM-based Cross-site Scripting | Acunetix DOM-based XSS is a kind of XSS occurring entirely on the client-side. React XSS Guide: Examples and Prevention - StackHawk Examples of some JavaScript sandbox / sanitizers: Don't eval() JSON to convert it to native JavaScript objects. Before putting untrusted data into a URL query string ensure it's URL encoded. DOM-based Cross-site Scripting (DOM XSS) is a particular type of a Cross-site Scripting vulnerability. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks are a type of injection, in which malicious scripts are injected into otherwise benign and trusted websites. From now on, every time Trusted Types detect a violation, a report will be sent to a configured report-uri. An attacker can construct a link to send a victim to a vulnerable page with a payload in the query string and fragment portions of the URL. If a JavaScript library such as jQuery is being used, look out for sinks that can alter DOM elements on the page. This enables attackers to execute malicious JavaScript, which typically allows them to hijack other users' accounts. There are two ways to do this. CWE - CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page If your code looked like the following, you would need to only double JavaScript encode input data. XSS: What it is, how it works, and how to prevent it - Medium What is XSS? Impact, Types, and Prevention - Bright Security If you're using JavaScript for writing to HTML, look at the .textContent attribute as it is a Safe Sink and will automatically HTML Entity Encode. For the purposes of this article, we refer to the HTML, HTML attribute, URL, and CSS contexts as subcontexts because each of these contexts can be reached and set within a JavaScript execution context. Input validation. //any code passed into lName is now executable. Types of XSS attacks since mid-2012: DOM-based XSS attacks in React. See Browser compatibility for up-to-date cross-browser support information.Key TermDOM-based cross-site scripting happens when data from a user controlled source (like user name, or redirect URL taken from the URL fragment) reaches a sink, which is a function like eval() or a property setter like .innerHTML, that can execute arbitrary JavaScript code. Please note, it is always dangerous design to put untrusted data directly into a command execution context. Summary. To signify that the data was securely processed, create a special object - a Trusted Type.DoanElement.innerHTML = aTrustedHTML; With Trusted Types enabled, the browser accepts a TrustedHTML object for sinks that expect HTML snippets. When you find a sink that is being assigned data that originated from the source, you can use the debugger to inspect the value by hovering over the variable to show its value before it is sent to the sink. Instead use JSON.toJSON() and JSON.parse() (Chris Schmidt). This is because these sinks treat the variable as text and will never execute it. The following article describes how to exploit different kinds of XSS Vulnerabilities that this article was created to help you avoid: Discussion on the Types of XSS Vulnerabilities: How to Review Code for Cross-site scripting Vulnerabilities: How to Test for Cross-site scripting Vulnerabilities: Copyright 2021 - CheatSheets Series Team - This work is licensed under a, Output Encoding for HTML Attribute Contexts, Output Encoding for JavaScript Contexts, Insecure Direct Object Reference Prevention, OWASP Java Encoder JavaScript encoding examples, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. How common is DOM-based cross-site scripting? For example: Modern web applications are typically built using a number of third-party libraries and frameworks, which often provide additional functions and capabilities for developers. The majority of DOM XSS vulnerabilities can be found quickly and reliably using Burp Suite's web vulnerability scanner. However, depending on the tag which innerText is applied, code can be executed. The attack functions by manipulating the internal model of the webpage within the browser known as the DOM and are referred to as DOM based attacks . In those cases, create a Trusted Type object yourself. Its critical to use quotation marks like " or ' to surround your variables. When your application no longer produces violations, you can start enforcing Trusted Types: Voila! . Note that the browser's "View source" option won't work for DOM XSS testing because it doesn't take account of changes that have been performed in the HTML by JavaScript. After the page's JavaScript applies this malicious URL to the back link's href, clicking on the back link will execute it: Another potential sink to look out for is jQuery's $() selector function, which can be used to inject malicious objects into the DOM. Policies are factories for Trusted Types that enforce certain security rules on their input: This code creates a policy called myEscapePolicy that can produce TrustedHTML objects via its createHTML() function. For DOM XSS, the attack is injected into the application during runtime in the client directly. Use URL Encoding for these scenarios. For example, using the default configuration you might use a Razor HtmlHelper like so; When you view the source of the web page you will see it has been rendered as follows, with the Chinese text encoded; To widen the characters treated as safe by the encoder you would insert the following line into the ConfigureServices() method in startup.cs; This example widens the safe list to include the Unicode Range CjkUnifiedIdeographs. This information should help you narrow down which parts of code may be introducing DOM XSS and need to change.Most of the violations like this can also be detected by running a code linter or static code checkers on your codebase. DOM-based cross-site scripting happens when data from a user controlled, Most of the violations like this can also be detected by running a code linter or, If the sanitization logic in DOMPurify is buggy, your application might still have a DOM XSS vulnerability. These frameworks steer developers towards good security practices and help mitigate XSS by using templating, auto-escaping, and more. See how our software enables the world to secure the web. What is Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and How to Prevent It? DOM-based cross-site scripting is a type of cross-site scripting (XSS) attack executed within the Document Object Model (DOM) of a page loaded into the browser. Using untrusted user data on the left side of the expression allows an attacker to subvert internal and external attributes of the window object, whereas using user input on the right side of the expression doesn't allow direct manipulation. No single technique will solve XSS. It is always a bad idea to use a user-controlled input in dangerous sources such as eval. If these methods are provided with untrusted input, then an XSS vulnerability could result. The enterprise-enabled dynamic web vulnerability scanner. -->, "javascript:myFunction('<%=ESAPI.encoder().encodeForJavascript(untrustedData)%>', 'test');", "<%=ESAPI.encoder().encodeForHTML(last_name)%>", //when the value is retrieved the encoding is reversed. Cookie attributes try to limit the impact of an XSS attack but dont prevent the execution of malicious content or address the root cause of the vulnerability. Avoid populating the following methods with untrusted data. When a site uses the ng-app attribute on an HTML element, it will be processed by AngularJS. If this is the case, you'll need to use the search function again to track these variables and see if they're passed to a sink. These methods constitute the HTML Subcontext within the Execution Context. We are looking for web developers to participate in user research, product testing, discussion groups and more. A list of safe HTML attributes is provided in the Safe Sinks section. Note that browsers behave differently with regards to URL-encoding, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari will URL-encode location.search and location.hash, while IE11 and Microsoft Edge (pre-Chromium) will not URL-encode these sources. How DOM Based XSS Attacks work - Bright Security The other alternative is using N-levels of encoding. Now that you know more about cross-site scripting attacks and their impact, let's take a look at how you can prevent cross-site scripting or XSS attacks. In that case, use a default policy: The policy with a name default is used wherever a string is used in a sink that only accepts Trusted Type.GotchasUse the default policy sparingly, and prefer refactoring the application to use regular policies instead. Cross Site Scripting Prevention Cheat Sheet - github.com There will be times where you need to do something outside the protection provided by your framework. How to detect DOM-based cross-site scripting? One scenario would be allow users to change the styling or structure of content inside a WYSIWYG editor. Trusted Types force you to process a value. Cross Site Scripting Prevention Cheat Sheet - OWASP The most fundamental safe way to populate the DOM with untrusted data is to use the safe assignment property textContent. There are numerous methods which implicitly eval() data passed to it that must be avoided. Please look at the OWASP Java Encoder JavaScript encoding examples for examples of proper JavaScript use that requires minimal encoding. Accelerate penetration testing - find more bugs, more quickly. Its easy to make mistakes with the implementation so it should not be your primary defense mechanism. Get started with Burp Suite Enterprise Edition. Now all the violations are reported to //my-csp-endpoint.example, but the website continues to work. Enhance security monitoring to comply with confidence. Trusted Types heavily reduce the DOM XSS attack surface of your application. In an XSS attack, an attacker uses web-pages or web applications to send malicious code and compromise users' interactions with a vulnerable application. DOM-based XSS attacks seek to exploit the DOM in a simple two step process: Create a Source: Inject a malicious script into a property found to be suceptible to DOM-based XSS attacks. Cross-site scripting ( XSS) vulnerabilities first became known through the CERT Advisory CA-2000-02 (Malicious HTML Tags Embedded in Client Web Requests), although these vulnerabilities had been exploited before. Therefore there is little change in the encoding rules for URL attributes in an execution (DOM) context. Cross Site Scripting PreventionProtect and Prevent XSS Developers should use the following prevention steps to avoid introducing XSS into their application. For example, this is the case if you're loading a third-party library from a CDN. This is why you would need to HTML encode too. This cheat sheet provides guidance to prevent XSS vulnerabilities. Another option provided by Gaz (Gareth) was to use a specific code construct to limit mutability with anonymous closures. DOM-based vulnerabilities occur in the content processing stage performed on the client, typically in client-side JavaScript. Understanding the XSS Threat: A Comprehensive Guide to DOM Based Cross However, this could be used by an attacker to subvert internal and external attributes of the myMapType object. It uses HTML attribute encoding rules whenever you use the @ directive. The example that follows illustrates using closures to avoid double JavaScript encoding. If you must, the following examples describe some approaches that do and do not work. For each location where your string appears within the DOM, you need to identify the context. This is where Output Encoding and HTML Sanitization are critical. If you directly access an encoder via System.Text.Encodings.Web. Do your applications use this vulnerable package? What is cross-site scripting (XSS) and how to prevent it? | Web *Encoder.Default then the default, Basic Latin only safelist will be used. DOM-based XSS Examples. XSS vulnerabilities generally occur when an application takes user input and outputs it to a page without validating, encoding or escaping it. 99% of the time it is an indication of bad or lazy programming practice, so simply don't do it instead of trying to sanitize the input. After encoding the encodedValue variable will contain %22Quoted%20Value%20with%20spaces%20and%20%26%22. However, if the pages returned from your web application utilize a content type of text/xhtml or the file type extension of *.xhtml then HTML encoding may not work to mitigate against XSS. If you're using JavaScript to change a CSS property, look into using style.property = x. There are a variety of sinks that are relevant to DOM-based vulnerabilities. When you are in a DOM execution context you only need to JavaScript encode HTML attributes which do not execute code (attributes other than event handler, CSS, and URL attributes). Login here. As HTML attribute encoding is a superset of HTML encoding this means you don't have to concern yourself with whether you should use HTML encoding or HTML attribute encoding. In many cases the context isn't always straightforward to discern. //The following does NOT work because the event handler is being set to a string. Always JavaScript encode and delimit untrusted data as quoted strings when entering the application as illustrated in the following example. It is almost impossible to detect DOM XSS only from the server-side (using HTTP requests). The good news is that if user input is handled properly at the foundation level (e.g. You may want to do this to change a hyperlink, hide an element, add alt-text for an image, or change inline CSS styles. DOM-based XSS is an attack that modifies the domain object model (DOM) on the client side ( the browser). Also, XSS attacks always execute in the browser. The primary rule that you must follow to prevent DOM XSS is: sanitize all untrusted data, even if it is only used in client-side scripts. Reflected and Stored XSS are server side injection issues while DOM based XSS is a client (browser) side injection issue. Encode all characters using the \xHH format. The name originated from early versions of the attack where stealing data cross-site was the primary focus. This will solve the problem, and it is the right way to re-mediate DOM based XSS vulnerabilities. We want to help you build beautiful, accessible, fast, and secure websites that work cross-browser, and for all of your users. The most common source for DOM XSS is the URL, which is typically accessed with the window.location object. A DOM-based XSS attack is possible if the web application writes data to the Document Object Model without proper sanitization. //The following does NOT work because of the encoded "(" and ")". The document.write sink works with script elements, so you can use a simple payload, such as the one below: Note, however, that in some situations the content that is written to document.write includes some surrounding context that you need to take account of in your exploit. Output Encoding is recommended when you need to safely display data exactly as a user typed it in. Because JavaScript is based on an international standard (ECMAScript), JavaScript encoding enables the support of international characters in programming constructs and variables in addition to alternate string representations (string escapes). DOM-Based Cross-Site Scripting (DOM XSS) | Learn AppSec - Invicti Consider adopting the following controls in addition to the above. There are some further things to consider: Security professionals often talk in terms of sources and sinks. This helps quickly identify a large chunk of violations. DOM-Based Cross-Site Scripting. Using the right combination of defensive techniques is necessary to prevent XSS. DOM XSS stands for Document Object Model-based Cross-site Scripting. As with all other Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities, this type of attack also relies on insecure handling of user input on an HTML page. These locations are known as dangerous contexts. DOM-based Cross-site Scripting (DOM XSS) is a particular type of a Cross-site Scripting vulnerability. Looking to understand what cross-site scripting (XSS) is and the various techniques used by attackers? Use only safe functions like document.innerText and document.textContent. The data is subsequently read from the DOM by the web application and outputted to the browser. In a reflected DOM XSS vulnerability, the server processes data from the request, and echoes the data into the response. CSS Contexts refer to variables placed into inline CSS. Common injection vectors include document.url, document.location, and document.referrer objects. Content Security Policy - An allowlist that prevents content being loaded. In many cases, JavaScript encoding does not stop attacks within an execution context. Please insert your password to refresh your session. The primary difference is where the attack is injected into the application. Depending on the user input, use a suitable escaping technique like HTML escape, CSS escape, JavaScript escape, URL escape, etc. To use the configurable encoders via DI your constructors should take an HtmlEncoder, JavaScriptEncoder and UrlEncoder parameter as appropriate. The third cross site scripting attack occurs entirely in the browser. A DOM-based XSS attack is possible if the web application writes data to the DOM without proper sanitization. The world's #1 web penetration testing toolkit. This cheatsheet addresses DOM (Document Object Model) based XSS and is an extension (and assumes comprehension of) the XSS Prevention Cheatsheet. Level up your hacking and earn more bug bounties. Trusted Types are supported in Chrome 83, and a polyfill is available for other browsers. If you use Burp's browser, however, you can take advantage of its built-in DOM Invader extension, which does a lot of the hard work for you. To prevent DOM-based cross-site scripting, sanitize all untrusted data, even if it is only used in client-side scripts. The innerText feature was originally introduced by Internet Explorer, and was formally specified in the HTML standard in 2016 after being adopted by all major browser vendors. Trusted Types give you the tools to write, security review, and maintain applications free of DOM XSS vulnerabilities by making the dangerous web API functions secure by default. Frameworks make it easy to ensure variables are correctly validated and escaped or sanitised. It uses the Document Object Model (DOM), which is a standard way to represent HTML objects in a hierarchical manner. // is an example of untrusted data that was properly JavaScript encoded but still executes. RULE #1 - HTML Escape then JavaScript Escape Before Inserting Untrusted Data into HTML Subcontext within the Execution Context, RULE #2 - JavaScript Escape Before Inserting Untrusted Data into HTML Attribute Subcontext within the Execution Context, RULE #3 - Be Careful when Inserting Untrusted Data into the Event Handler and JavaScript code Subcontexts within an Execution Context, RULE #4 - JavaScript Escape Before Inserting Untrusted Data into the CSS Attribute Subcontext within the Execution Context, RULE #5 - URL Escape then JavaScript Escape Before Inserting Untrusted Data into URL Attribute Subcontext within the Execution Context, RULE #6 - Populate the DOM using safe JavaScript functions or properties, RULE #7 - Fixing DOM Cross-site Scripting Vulnerabilities, Guidelines for Developing Secure Applications Utilizing JavaScript, GUIDELINE #1 - Untrusted data should only be treated as displayable text, GUIDELINE #2 - Always JavaScript encode and delimit untrusted data as quoted strings when entering the application when building templated JavaScript, GUIDELINE #3 - Use document.createElement(""), element.setAttribute("","value"), element.appendChild() and similar to build dynamic interfaces, GUIDELINE #4 - Avoid sending untrusted data into HTML rendering methods, GUIDELINE #5 - Avoid the numerous methods which implicitly eval() data passed to it, Utilizing an Enclosure (as suggested by Gaz), GUIDELINE #6 - Use untrusted data on only the right side of an expression, GUIDELINE #7 - When URL encoding in DOM be aware of character set issues, GUIDELINE #8 - Limit access to object properties when using object[x] accessors, GUIDELINE #9 - Run your JavaScript in a ECMAScript 5 canopy or sandbox, GUIDELINE #10 - Don't eval() JSON to convert it to native JavaScript objects, Common Problems Associated with Mitigating DOM Based XSS, Insecure Direct Object Reference Prevention, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. There are also TrustedScript and TrustedScriptURL objects for other sensitive sinks. JavaScript encoding takes dangerous characters for JavaScript and replaces them with their hex, for example < would be encoded as \u003C. Preventing XSS in ASP.NET - Code Envato Tuts+ For example, you might need to close some existing elements before using your JavaScript payload. This is in stark contrast to JavaScript encoding in the event handler attribute of a HTML tag (HTML parser) where JavaScript encoding mitigates against XSS. DOM-based XSS is an advanced XSS attack. This can lead to a range of attacks, including stealing sensitive information, hijacking user accounts, and spreading malware. You can deploy a report collector (such as the open-source go-csp-collector), or use one of the commercial equivalents. It is also impossible to protect against such client-side attacks using WAFs. Normally executing JavaScript from a CSS context required either passing javascript:attackCode() to the CSS url() method or invoking the CSS expression() method passing JavaScript code to be directly executed. The logic which parses URLs in both execution and rendering contexts looks to be the same. It is particularly common when applications leverage common JavaScript function calls such as document.baseURI to build a part of the page without sanitization. The HTML parser of the rendering context dictates how data is presented and laid out on the page and can be further broken down into the standard contexts of HTML, HTML attribute, URL, and CSS. The #redir route is executed by another file, redir.html. To test for DOM-based cross-site scripting manually, you generally need to use a browser with developer tools, such as Chrome. This is a Safe Sink and will automatically URL encode data in it. All other contexts are unsafe and you should not place variable data in them. - owasp-CheatSheetSeries . However, sources aren't limited to data that is directly exposed by browsers - they can also originate from the website. If you utilize fully qualified URLs then this will break the links as the colon in the protocol identifier (http: or javascript:) will be URL encoded preventing the http and javascript protocols from being invoked. Semgrep rule to identify above dom xss link. When other users load affected pages the attacker's scripts will run, enabling the attacker to steal cookies and session tokens, change the contents of the web page through DOM manipulation or redirect the browser to another page. Try to refactor your code to remove references to unsafe sinks like innerHTML, and instead use textContent or value. In DOM-based cross-site scripting, the HTML source code and response of the attack . Always pass untrusted input as a query string value. ESAPI is one of the few which works on an allow list and encodes all non-alphanumeric characters. Cross-site scripting XSS For instance, jQuery's attr() function can change the attributes of DOM elements. In these cases, HTML Sanitization should be used. In practice, different sources and sinks have differing properties and behavior that can affect exploitability, and determine what techniques are necessary. This will solve the problem, and it is the right way to re-mediate DOM based XSS vulnerabilities. This document only discusses JavaScript bugs which lead to XSS. There are several methods and attributes which can be used to directly render HTML content within JavaScript. XSS attacks occur when an attacker uses a web application to send malicious code, generally in the form of a browser side script, to a different end user. The line above could have possibly worked to render a link. For information on sources and sinks, read the following article: Finding the Source of a DOM-based XSS Vulnerability with Acunetix. Information on ordering, pricing, and more. If youre not using a framework or need to cover gaps in the framework then you should use an output encoding library. I will show you three examples of DOM-based XSS attacks in this article. DOM-based XSS is a type of cross-site scripting attack that takes advantage of vulnerabilities in the Document Object Model (DOM) of a web page. (It's free!). You might already recognize some of them, as browsers vendors and web frameworks already steer you away from using these features for security reasons. This cushions your application against an XSS attack, and at times, you may be able to prevent it, as well. However, frameworks aren't perfect and security gaps still exist in popular frameworks like React and Angular. The safest way to insert values is to place the value in a data attribute of a tag and retrieve it in your JavaScript. DOM-based Cross-site Scripting (DOM XSS) is a particular type of a Cross-site Scripting vulnerability. DOM based Cross Site Scripting - Client-Side Attacks on Browsers - SCIP DOM-based cross-site scripting attack DOM-based XSS is also sometimes called "type-0 XSS." It occurs when the XSS vector executes as a result of a DOM modification on a website in a user's browser. At a basic level XSS works by tricking your application into inserting a