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Cross-site Scripting occurrences in Oxygen Xml Editor
An issue was discovered in Oxygen XML WebHelp before 22.1 build 2021082006 and 23.x before 23.1 build 2021090310. An XSS vulnerability in search terms proposals (in online documentation generated using Oxygen XML WebHelp) allows attackers to execute JavaScript by convincing a user to type specific text in the WebHelp output search field. (2022-07-13, CVE-2021-46827)
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>