Unraveling Some of the Mysteries around DOM-Based XSS

Presented at AppSec USA 2012, Oct. 26, 2012, 2 p.m. (45 minutes).

DOM-based XSS was first revealed to the world back in 2005 by Amit Klien, when it was an interesting theoretical vulnerability. In 2012, with the push towards Web 2.0 well into the mainstream, DOM-based XSS has become a very commonly uncovered and exploited vulnerability, but it's poorly understood. This talk will focus on the full range of issues around DOM-based XSS. It will start with a discussion of the technical details of the vulnerability, the true nature of the risk it introduces (both likelihood and impact), and some new terminology and updated definitions about what truly is a DOM-based XSS vulnerability as compared to the standard Stored and Reflected XSS that the community is well aware of. It will then discuss the difficulties that security analysts face when trying to find DOM-based XSS flaws, and provide recommended analysis techniques that help move DOM-based XSS discovery from an art towards more of a science. And finally, it will discuss simple techniques for avoiding DOM-based XSS issues in the first place as well as how to mitigate issues that are uncovered during a security review.

Presenters:

  • Dave Wichers - COO - Aspect Security
    Dave Wichers is a cofounder and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Aspect Security, a consulting company that specializes in application security services. He is also a long time contributor to OWASP, helping to establish the OWASP Foundation in 2004, serving on the OWASP Board since it was formed from 2004 through 2013, served as OWASP Conferences Chair from 2005 through 2008, is a coauthor of the OWASP Top 10 and has led the project since 2007, and has contributed to numerous other important OWASP projects including WebGoat, ESAPI, ASVS, and the OWASP Cheat Sheet Series. His latest OWASP project is the new OWASP Benchmark, which he's going to talk about at OWASP AppSec USA 2015. Dave has over 25 years of experience in the information security field, and has focused exclusively on application security since 1998. At Aspect, in addition to his COO duties, he is Aspect's application security courseware lead, one of their chief instructors, and provides a wide variety of application security consulting services to Aspect's clients. Prior to starting Aspect, he ran the Application Security Services Group at Exodus Communications. Dave has a Bachelors and Masters degree in Computer Science, is a CISSP, and a CISM.

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