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Cross-site Scripting occurrences in Dashboard For Google Analytics
The ShareThis Dashboard for Google Analytics WordPress plugin before 2.5.2 does not sanitise or escape the 'ga_action' parameter in the stats view before outputting it back in an attribute when the plugin is connected to a Google Analytics account, leading to a reflected Cross-Site Scripting issue which will be executed in the context of a logged in administrator (2021-08-30, CVE-2021-24438)
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>