Everything you need to know about Cross-site Scripting and Sensitive Cookie Exposures
by Zill Davis Civil LawyerJavaScript is undoubtedly one of the most popularly used
programming languages preferred by developers globally. However, security is
not its strongest suit. JavaScript happens to be fourth in the list of the most
vulnerable languages right after Java, C, and PHP. Hence, it is extremely
important for developers to pay keen attention to JavaScript
security when developing and maintaining apps using this language.
The Two Most Common
Threats to JavaScript Security
Every coding language has its very own issues. If you are
using JavaScript to develop an app then there are certain security threats that
you should be aware of and how to deal with them. In the following section, we
discuss cross-site scripting and sensitive cookie exposures and how to deal
with them in detail:
Cross-Site
Scripting (XSS)
Cross-site scripting falls under the client-side security
threat and has been ranked as one of the most dangerous threats. Also, it was
found that around 40% of all cyberattacks are XSS attacks. It occurs when the
attacker injects a malicious script into the victim’s web browser by using an
authentic web application. They can use both JavaScript and HTML to trigger the
malicious code. This gets reinforced even more as the victim uses the web page
and/or the application.
Some of these vulnerable vehicles are forums, message boards
and web pages. These seem to be used quite widely to spread XSS. An attacker
can exploit the vulnerabilities of XSS and make them work in tampering with
data, stealing accounts and even the distribution of malware. XSS is a highly
rated vulnerability as attackers can gain access to LocalStorage,
SessionStorage as well as cookies.
Preventing XSS Attacks
Preventing XSS attacks is crucial for the security of the
user and to do this, the developer needs to differentiate the untrusted data
and the inputs from the user from within the active browser content. Some ways
to do this are:
1) Validation
Validating the user’s input beforehand is advisable. This
can be done by ensuring the input contains acceptable characters which are safe
from XSS attacks.
2) Appropriate Frameworks
Frameworks with advanced packages contain XSS filters that
are immune to XSS attacks. Using these frameworks would ensure safety against
threats.
3) Encryption
The user’s input can be encrypted using sources such as HTML
escape, URL escape, JavaScript escape, CSS escape, etc. Avoiding pre-existing
libraries for the purpose of escaping as well as creating new libraries is
recommended.
Sensitive Cookie
Exposures
Server content can be accessed through client-side scripts,
and these might include sensitive data such as session IDs. When session
identifiers are exposed through URLs, error messages or logs, they open up the
application to a number of vulnerabilities such as session fixation and session
hijacking.
Preventing
Sensitive Cookie Exposures Attacks
1) 1) Cookie accesses
Avoid unauthorized access to cookies by using HTTPS and
HTTP-only cookies. This notifies the browser to prevent unauthorized cookie
access through the DOM.
2) 2) User Authentication Requests
In order to secure user sessions, opt for per-requests
instead of per-session identifiers. If and when the client requests privileged
access, the current session can terminate immediately and the requester would
need to re-authenticate.
3) 2) Content Security Policy
Defining the content security policy is important as it can
allow the developer to define styles, fonts, frames, media, etc. Content
security policy is a header and can be set using the Nginx configuration.
Conclusion
JavaScript security attacks can be curbed by using good
coding practices to secure applications against malware attacks. Developers
need to use the right methodologies for encoding, set secure cookies, use
updated frameworks and libraries and can even look into React Native
security for enhanced safety against attackers.
Sponsor Ads
Created on Mar 9th 2022 23:14. Viewed 155 times.