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Cross-site Scripting occurrences in Twisted
Twisted is an event-based framework for internet applications. Started with version 0.9.4, when the host header does not match a configured host `twisted.web.vhost.NameVirtualHost` will return a `NoResource` resource which renders the Host header unescaped into the 404 response allowing HTML and script injection. In practice this should be very difficult to exploit as being able to modify the Host header of a normal HTTP request implies that one is already in a privileged position. This issue was fixed in version 22.10.0rc1. There are no known workarounds. (2022-10-26, CVE-2022-39348)
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>