Empirical Investigation of the Web Browser Attack Surface under Cross-Site Scripting: An Urgent Need for Systematic Security Regression Testing

Abstract

Abstract-One of the major threats against web applications is Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). The final target of XSS attacks is the client running a particular web browser. During this last decade, several competing web browsers (IE, Netscape, Chrome, Firefox) have evolved to support new features. In this paper, we explore whether the evolution of web browsers is done using systematic security regression testing. Beginning with an analysis of their current exposure degree to XSS, we extend the empirical study to a decade of most popular web browser versions. We use XSS attack vectors as unit test cases and we propose a new method supported by a tool to address this XSS vector testing issue. The analysis on a decade releases of most popular web browsers including mobile ones shows an urgent need of XSS regression testing. We advocate the use of a shared security testing benchmark as a good practice and propose a first set of publicly available XSS vectors as a basis to ensure that security is not sacrificed when a new version is delivered.

Browser Fingerprinting: Overview and Open Challenges

“…However, these techniques need further validation and research. Abgral et al utilized cross-site scripting attacks [32] to fingerprint HTML parsers in different browsers. This method yields fingerprints that are hard to mislead and difficult to reproduce since they presume a running HTML parser.…”

“…Another approach was proposed in [45], where Chromium was changed to protect against Flash and Canvas browser fingerprinting, but without influencing the two technologies. Laperdrix et al [46] also offered a Firefox-based upgrade with fingerprint protection against AudioContext, and Mitropoulos et al presented a training technique [47] for known cross-site scripting attacks to gather browser fingerprints [32]. ElBanna and Abdelbaki later created a method to reduce browser fingerprinting [48] for WebGL and Canvas fingerprint monitoring.…”

Analyzing Security Protocol Web Implementations Based on Model Extraction With Applied PI Calculus

“…Using model extraction methods, people mainly study the implementations security such as F * [15], [20], C [9], JAVA [34], [35], Swift [36], and ProScript [37]. Bhargavan et al [20] proposed a model extraction tool called fs2pv which extracts the SPI written by F * .…”