gHacks technology news » cross site scripting http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:31:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Secure Login with Firefox http://www.ghacks.net/2007/06/02/secure-login-with-firefox/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/06/02/secure-login-with-firefox/#comments Sat, 02 Jun 2007 15:33:27 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/06/02/secure-login-with-firefox/ Secure Login is a Firefox extension that is similar to Opera’s Wand feature. Instead of logging into a website by filling out the username and password form you login by clicking a button or using a shortcut. This is a great way to prevent the execution of malicious Javascript code that could “phish” your data.

Javascript will be temporarily disabled during login and the data is send right to the website that you want to login to. The Domain that you are currently on and that you want to login to are compared to ensure that you are indeed at the right website. A mismatch would result in a popup warning.

Some websites use Javascript for their login routine and Secure Login offers a list that contains site that are exceptions. Just add the website as an exception if you can’t login using the Secure Login extension.

secure login firefox

Username and Password fields are colored orange and a sound can be played (optional) to let you know that you reached a page with a login form. The shortcust ALT + N would send the login details to the server without filling out the form. this is a very convenient way to login.

Secure Login offers additional protection against cross site scripting attacks by protecting from any Javascript code during logon. This is an optional setting that can be enabled in the extension’s options.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/06/02/secure-login-with-firefox/feed/ 0 Cross Site Scripting http://www.ghacks.net/2005/10/27/cross-site-scripting/ http://www.ghacks.net/2005/10/27/cross-site-scripting/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2005 18:32:42 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=68 Cross site scripting (also known as XSS) occurs when a web application gathers malicious data from a user. The data is usually gathered in the form of a hyperlink which contains malicious content within it. The user will most likely click on this link from another website, instant message, or simply just reading a web board or email message. Usually the attacker will encode the malicious portion of the link to the site in HEX (or other encoding methods) so the request is less suspicious looking to the user when clicked on. After the data is collected by the web application, it creates an output page for the user containing the malicious data that was originally sent to it, but in a manner to make it appear as valid content from the website.

Many popular guestbook and forum programs allow users to submit posts with html and javascript embedded in them. If for example I was logged in as “john” and read a message by “joe” that contained malicious javascript in it, then it may be possible for “joe” to hijack my session just by reading his bulletin board post. Further details on how attacks like this are accomplished via “cookie theft” are explained in detail below.

taken from “The Cross Site Scripting FAQ”. Click link to read the whole faq.

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