Injection Exploits

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 23. Chapters: Code injection, CPLINK, Cross-site scripting, Email injection, Frame injection, Inter-protocol communication, Inter-protocol exploitation, Metasploit Project, Remote file inclusion, Shellcode, SQL injection, Vulnerability (computing), W3af, XSS worm. Excerpt: Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of computer security vulnerability typically found in Web applications. XSS enables attackers to inject client-side script into Web pages viewed by other users. A cross-site scripting vulnerability may be used by attackers to bypass access controls such as the same origin policy. Cross-site scripting carried out on websites accounted for roughly 84% of all security vulnerabilities documented by Symantec as of 2007. Their effect may range from a petty nuisance to a significant security risk, depending on the sensitivity of the data handled by the vulnerable site and the nature of any security mitigation implemented by the site's owner. Security on the web is based on a variety of mechanisms, including an underlying concept of trust known as the same origin policy. This essentially states that if content from one site (such as https://mybank.example.com) is granted permission to access resources on the system, then any content from that site will share these permissions, while content from another site (https://othersite.example.com) will have to be granted permissions separately. Cross-site scripting uses known vulnerabilities in web-based applications, their servers, or plug-in systems they rely on. Exploiting one of these, they fold malicious content into the content being delivered from the compromised site. When the resulting combined content arrives at the client-side web browser, it has all been delivered from the trusted source, and thus operates under the permissions granted to that system. By finding ways of injecting malicious scripts into web pages, an attacker can gain elevated access-privileges to sensitive page content, session cookies, and a variety of other information maintained by the browser on behalf of the user. Cross-site scripting attacks are therefore a special case of code injection. The expression "cross-site scripting" originally referred to the act of loading the attacked, third-party web application fr