Netcraft.com brings my attention to cross-site scripting security problem. I have examined this website for vulnerabilities. This problem is usually caused by systems not checking input received from user or third party before using it. One place this website receives input is the RSS new feeds. I have crafted a test RSS with embedded javascript. Some RSS feeder (including this website) display the content as is. They should have (arguably) strip off the embedded script before displaying it. I promptly plugged this by escaping the meta characters before outputting them on the web pages.
An important element for cross-site scripting is that a third party can use a reputable website as a conduit to inject questionable code in their context. In this case the news feeder's communication is only between this website and the news source. I am not aware of any loop hole for third party to get involved. But in the world of open communication it is better to be safe to test for all input before use.
2004.07.20 - comments (0)
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