XSS Attacks: Cross Site Scripting Exploits and Defense

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 480 pages
• Published by: Syngress May 15, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1597491543
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1597491549
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Weighs: 1.8 pounds

Book Description
Cross Site Scripting Attacks starts by defining the terms and laying out the ground work. It assumes that the reader is familiar with basic web programming (HTML) and JavaScript. First it discusses the concepts, methodology, and technology that makes XSS a valid concern. It then moves into the various types of XSS attacks, how they are implemented, used, and abused. After XSS is thoroughly explored, the next part provides examples of XSS malware and demonstrates real cases where XSS is a dangerous risk that exposes internet users to remote access, sensitive data theft, and monetary losses. Finally, the book closes by looking at the ways developers can avoid XSS vulnerabilities in their web applications, and how users can avoid becoming a victim. The audience is web developers, security practitioners, and managers.

*XSS Vulnerabilities exist in 8 out of ten Web sites
*The authors of this book are the undisputed industry leading authorities
*Contains independent, bleeding edge research, code listings and exploits that can not be found anywhere else

About The Author
Seth Fogie is the VP of Dallas-based Airscanner Corporation where he oversees the development of security software for the Window Mobile (Pocket PC) platform. He has co-authored numerous technical books on information security, including the top selling "Maximum Wireless Security" from SAMS, and "Security Warrior" from O'Reilly. Seth frequently speaks at IT and security conferences/seminars, including Black Hat, Defcon, CSI, and Dallascon. In addition, Seth has co-authored the HIPAA medical education course for the Texas Medical Associate and is acting Site Host for Security at the "InformIT.com" website where he writes articles and reviews/manages weekly information security related books and articles Jeremiah Grossman, founder and chief technology officer of WhiteHat Security, is a world-renowned expert in web application security and a founding member of the Web Application Security Consortium (WASC). At WhiteHat, Mr. Grossman is responsible for web application security R&D and industry evangelism. He is a frequent speaker at industry events including the Black Hat Briefings, ISACA, OWASP, NASA, ISSA and Defcon. A trusted media resource, Mr. Grossman has been featured in USA Today, the Washington Post, Information Week, NBC Nightly News, and many others. Prior to WhiteHat, Mr. Grossman was an information security officer at Yahoo! Robert Hansen, also known as RSnake, is the founder of the ha.ckers.org web application security lab and has been heavily involved in the hacking and the security industry since the mid 1990s. Robert has worked in banner advertizing and built click fraud detection in his role as CSO for several startups. For many years he ran the managed security services product lines for Cable & Wireless. At eBay he worked on anti-cross site scripting, anti-phishing, anti-virus and web application intrusion detection and countermeasures. He has spoken at Black Hat, the Gartner security round table and at Networld+Interop and he is a member of WASC, OWASP, and ISSA. Anton Rager is a Sr. Security Engineer with Avaya Labs and a founding member of Avaya's Enterprise Security Practice. He specializes in vulnerability research, VPN security and wireless security and is best known for his WEPCrack, WEPWedgie and IKECrack security tools. He has presented at Defcon, Toorcon, Interz0ne and many other lesser-known conferences, and was a contributing technical editor to the book Maximum Wireless Security. Petko pdp D. Petkov is a senior IT security consultant based in London, United Kingdom. His day-to-day work involves identifying vulnerabilities, building attack strategies and creating attack tools and penetration testing infrastructures. Petko is known in the underground circles as pdp or architect but his name is well known in the IT security industry for his strong technical background and creative thinking. He has been working for some of the world's top companies, providing consultancy on the latest security vulnerabilities and attack technologies.
His latest project, GNUCITIZEN (gnucitizen.org), is one of the leading web application security resources on-line where part of his work is disclosed for the benefit of the public. Petko defines himself as a cool hunter in the security circles.

Reader Reviews
XSS Attacks earns 4 stars for being the first book devoted to Cross Site Scripting and for rounding up multiple experts on the topic. The authors are synonymous with attacking Web applications and regularly share their vast expertise via their blogs and tools. However, XSS Attacks suffers the same problems found whenever Syngress rushes a book to print -- nonexistent editing and uneven content. I found XSS Attacks to be highly enlightening, but I expect a few other books on the topic arriving later this year could be better. First, as Tadaka mentioned, ch 3 is the best written part of the book. In fact, the author of ch 3 should have written the entire book. There is a difference between an author of a tool, an author of a blog, and an author of a book. The author of ch 3 clearly knows how to make a clear argument over the course of a long stretch of pages (over 90) and carry the reader. Lucky for non-book-buyers, Syngress posted ch 3 for free on their Web site. You'll get a great foundation on XSS, and learn about CSRF and backdooring Flash and Quicktime. In terms of readability, ch 2 wasn't bad. I liked trying out various Firefox extensions and the author's examples were good. I think ch 1 should be completely dropped. It mentions terms not defined until ch 2. The language is exceptionally rough, indicating zero editing was done. The DNS pinning examples in ch 5 were confusing; it doesn't help novice readers to discuss [...] and then use [...]. (I think that's an error.) I really didn't get as much from the book past ch 3 as I did from ch 3. The major take-away from XSS Attacks is that one should never trust clients. Furthermore, far too many vulnerable capabilities exist in applications most people would never dream of fearing, like those that render .pdf or .swf. I really liked the point that browsers constantly interpret and "fix" broken HTML, sometimes to the detriment of the security world. I also liked reading how users can be duped by attacks against the integrity of data, such as adding or removing details of Web sites. Right now, if you want to learn more about recent XSS attacks in printed form, this book is your main option. Last year I favorably reviewed Lance James' book, Phishing Exposed, which includes some of these techniques. Later this year one of the other book reviewers, Dafydd Stuttard, should be publishing The Web Application Hackers Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting Security Flaws. Syngress claims to be publishing Web Application Vulnerabilities: Detect, Exploit, Prevent by Steven Palmer in the fall. Hacking Exposed Web 2.0 by Himanshu Dwivedi is another option, but I find his security books to be poorly written. I highly recommend visiting the authors' blogs, since they cover a lot of the information in XSS Attacks. Comment | | (Report this)