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Cross-site Scripting occurrences in Patchwork
A Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in the template tag used to render message ids in Patchwork v1.1 through v2.1.x. This allows an attacker to insert JavaScript or HTML into the patch detail page via an email sent to a mailing list consumed by Patchwork. This affects the function msgid in templatetags/patch.py. Patchwork versions v2.1.4 and v2.0.4 will contain the fix. (2019-07-10, CVE-2019-13122)
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>