What is the Severity Level of an XSS Attack?

While it has been exploited and researched since the 21st century, the Cross-site Scripting vulnerability is still a choice attack vector due to its simplicity and effectiveness. The Cross-site Scripting vulnerability was positioned at number#7 in the 2017 OWASP top 10 while it was consolidated under the Injection vulnerability and was ranked number#3 in 2021. A hacker can deface a web application, redirect users to malicious websites, or steal their session cookie with a successful attack. Additionally, by obtaining user credentials of users with elevated privileges, hackers can achieve complete control of the web application.

How to identify XSS vulnerabilities with Crashtest Security?

Crashtest Security‘s scanner combines DAST and SAST techniques to help examine each data entry and exit point. It assumes entry points as those interfaces that accept user-controlled data. In contrast, exit points are components of the application where this data might be included in the server‘s response. The scanner automatically submits arbitrary values at entry points, analyzing whether the data has been altered at the exit point. Once links between entry and exit points are mapped, the platform tests these links for XSS vulnerabilities using predefined security rules.

XSS Prevention Guide

Cross-site scripting (XSS) is one of the most commonly known injection attacks. Learn how to detect and prevent it.

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In this whitepaper:

What is XSS?
Types of XSS
What is the severity level of an attack?
How to Identify XSS vulnerabilities with Crashtest Security
XSS prevention techniques/
Adopting best practices for XSS prevention
Crashtest Security‘s Vulnerability Scanner

Injections are a common form of attack where the adversary leverages a security vulnerability in the application to supply it with untrusted inputs. Cross-site scripting (XSS) is one of the most commonly known injection attacks. The attacker manipulates the web application to return malicious scripts executed by the user‘s browser.

This guide discusses cross-site scripting attacks, the types of such vulnerabilities, and learning approaches to detect and prevent them in modern web applications.

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