Table Of ContentCross-Site Scripting
Attacks
Security, Privacy, and Trust in Mobile
Communications
About the Series
Similar to computers, the mobile landscape is also facing various security and
privacy related threats. Increasing demand of sophisticated handheld mobile
devices including smartphones, tablets, and so forth, is making them an attrac-
tive target of security threats. Since these devices store confdential data of the
end users, and exploitation of vulnerabilities of the underlying technologies can
create a havoc on massive scale, it becomes inevitable to need to understand and
address the threats associated with them and to analyze the level of trust that can
be established for mobile communication scenarios.
Tis series will present emerging aspects of the mobile communication land-
scape, and focuses on the security, privacy, and trust issues in mobile communi-
cation based applications. It brings state-of-the-art subject matter for dealing with
the issues associated with mobile and wireless networks. Tis series is targeted for
researchers, students, academicians, and business professions in the feld.
If you’re interested in submitting a proposal for a book to be included in the
series, please email [email protected]
Series Editors:
Brij B. Gupta
Computer and Cyber Security
Principles, Algorithm, Applications, and Perspectives
Brij B. Gupta
Smart Card Security
Applications, Attacks, and Countermeasures
B.B.Gupta, Megha Quamara
Cross-Site Scripting Attacks
Classifcation, Attack and Countermeasures
B.B. Gupta and Pooja Chaudhary
For more information about this series please visit: https: //www .crcp ress. com/S ecur
ity-Pr ivacy -and- Trust -in-M obile -Comm unica tions /book -seri es/SP TMOBI LE
Cross-Site Scripting
Attacks
Classifcation, Attack, and
Countermeasures
B. B. Gupta and Pooja Chaudhary
First edition published 2020
by CRC Press
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Dedicated to my parents and family for their
constant support during the course of this book
—B. B. Gupta
Dedicated to my parents, siblings, and my mentor
for their guidance and motivation throughout
the journey of completion of this book.
—Pooja Chaudhary
Contents
List of Figures, xiii
List of Tables, xvii
Preface,xix
Acknowledgments, xxiii
Author Bio, xxv
CHAPTER 1 ◾ Security Flaws in Web Applications 1
1.1 WEB APPLICATION VULNERABILITIES 1
1.1.1 Fundamentals of Web Application
Architecture 2
1.1.2 Background and Motivation 3
1.1.3 Related Statistics 6
1.2 DIFFERENT DOMAIN-CENTRIC WEB
APPLICATION VULNERABILITIES 11
1.3 COMPREHENSIVE DETAIL OF MOST
DANGEROUS VULNERABILITIES 13
1.3.1 Overview of Web Application Vulnerabilities 15
1.3.2 Risk Path Assessment 15
1.3.3 Mapping Vulnerabilities with Risk Rating
Methods 18
vii
viii ◾ Contents
1.4 TOWARD BUILDING SECURE WEB
APPLICATIONS 19
1.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY 24
REFERENCES 25
CHAPTER 2 ◾ Security Challenges in Social
Networking: Taxonomy and Statistics 29
2.1 INTRODUCTION 29
2.1.1 Statistics of Social Networking 30
2.1.2 Recent Incidences on Social Networking
Platform 31
2.2 DISTINCT ATTACK CLASSES OF SOCIAL
PLATFORM 35
2.3 SOCIAL NETWORK DESIGN VS. PRIVACY
AND SECURITY GOALS 37
2.4 SOLUTIONS TO PREVENT AGAINST SOCIAL
MEDIA ATTACKS 45
2.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY 45
REFERENCES 49
CHAPTER 3 ◾ Fundamentals of Cross-Site Scripting
(XSS) Attack 53
3.1 OVERVIEW OF CROSS-SITE SCRIPTING
(XSS) ATTACK 53
3.1.1 Steps to Exploit XSS Vulnerability 54
3.1.2 Recent Incidences of XSS Attack 55
3.2 EFFECTS OF XSS ATTACK 55
3.3 CLASSIFICATION OF XSS ATTACK 57
3.3.1 Persistent XSS Attack 57
3.3.2 Non-Persistent Attack 59
3.3.3 DOM-Based XSS Attack 60
Contents ◾ ix
3.4 APPROACHES TO DEFEND AGAINST
XSS ATTACK 60
3.4.1 Client-Side Approaches 66
3.4.2 Server-Side Approaches 66
3.4.3 Combinational Approaches 66
3.4.4 Proxy-Based Approaches 66
3.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY 68
REFERENCES 71
CHAPTER 4 ◾ C lustering and Context-Based
Sanitization Mechanism for
Defending against XSS Attack 75
4.1 INTRODUCTION 76
4.1.1 Views 76
4.1.2 Access Control List (ACL) 77
4.1.3 Context-Based Sanitization 77
4.2 PROPOSED APPROACH 78
4.2.1 Abstract Design 78
4.2.2 Detailed Design 79
4.2.2.1 Training Phase 80
4.2.2.2 Recognition Phase 80
4.2.3 Key Modules 84
4.3 EXPERIMENTAL TESTING AND EVALUATION
RESULTS 89
4.3.1 Implementation Details 92
4.3.2 Categories of XSS Attack Vectors 92
4.3.3 Detection Outcome 95
4.4 PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS 97
4.4.1 Using F-Measure 97
4.4.2 Using F-test Hypothesis 99
