Formstone Cross-site Scripting

Formstone <=1.4.16 is vulnerable to a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability caused by improper validation of user supplied input in the upload-target.php and upload-chunked.php files. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability using a specially crafted URL to execute a script in a victim's Web browser within the security context of the hosting Web site once the URL is clicked or visited. An attacker could use this vulnerability to steal the victim's cookie-based authentication credentials, force malware execution, user redirection and others. (2021-01-07, CVE-2020-26768)

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>