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Cross-site Scripting occurrences in Black Duck Hub
A vulnerability in Black Duck Hub’s embedded MadCap Flare documentation files could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to conduct a cross-site scripting attack. The vulnerability is due to improper validation of user-supplied input to MadCap Flare's framework embedded within Black Duck Hub's Help Documentation to supply content. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by convincing a user to click a link designed to pass malicious input to the interface. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to conduct cross-site scripting attacks and gain access to sensitive browser-based information. (2022-05-10, CVE-2022-30278)
Why Cross-site Scripting can be dangerous
Cross site scripting is an attack where a web page executes code that is injected by an adversary. It usually appears, when users input is presented. This attack can be used to impersonate a user, take over control of the session, or even steal API keys.
The attack can be executed e.g. when you application injects the request parameter directly into the HTML code of the page returned to the user:
https://server.com/confirmation?message=Transaction+Complete
what results in:
<span>Confirmation: Transaction Complete</span>
In that case the message can be modified to become a valid Javascript code, e.g.:
https://server.com/confirmation?message=<script>dangerous javascript code here</script>
and it will be executed locally by the user's browser with full access to the user's personal application/browser data:
<span>Confirmation: <script>dangerous javascript code here</script></span>