Scanning AJAX for Cross-Site Scripting Entry Points
The continuous adoption of Web 2.0 architecture for web applications is instrumental in AJAX, Web services and Flash, emerging as key components. AJAX is a combination of technologies such as JavaScript with the XMLHttpRequest object, DOM and XML streams.
Cross site scripting (XSS) can make browsers vulnerable to critical information hijacking if exploited with malicious intent. XSS is already categorized as persistent [1], non-persistent [1] and DOM-based [2]. AJAX code loaded in browser can have entry points to XSS and it is the job of the security analyst to identify these entry points. It is difficult to decisively conclude that possible entry points to an application can be exploited. One may need to do a trace or debug to measure the risk of these entry points. This article introduces you to a quick way to identify XSS entry points in an application.
