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Cross-site Scripting occurrences in Discotoc
DiscoTOC is a Discourse theme component that generates a table of contents for topics. Users that can create topics in TOC-enabled categories (and have sufficient trust level - configured in component's settings) are able to inject arbitrary HTML on that topic's page. The issue has been fixed on the `main` branch. Admins can update the theme component through the admin UI (Customize -> Themes -> Components -> DiscoTOC -> Check for Updates). Alternatively, admins can temporarily disable the DiscoTOC theme component. (2022-10-06, CVE-2022-39270)
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>