----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven M. Christey" <coley@mitre.org>
To: <bugtraq@securityfocus.com>; <full-disclosure@lists.grok.org.uk>
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 10:43 PM
Subject: [Full-disclosure] Re: Do world's famous companies take care oftheir
security?
Vulnerability databases (CVE included) historically have NOT recorded
site-specific XSS and other issues like sensitive data disclosure.
The primary reason is that most vuln DBs are focused on issues in
software that a system administrator would be directly responsible
for. Software services, which is basically what you're talking about
with PayPal, Google, and the like, are not under direct control of the
sysadmin - plus, the vendor merely needs to flip a switch (i.e. patch
the bug) and the problem is instantly fixed for all customers. The
lines between "site-specific" and "distributable" software are
becoming more blurry however, e.g. with hosted solutions.
And they should not! It`s not thier job.
XSS bugs are easy to discover and easy to fix, so what's the problem?
This is a common misconception. The basic XSS issues are easy to
discover and fix, and there are still far too many of them in
software. That's partially because with XSS, every single
input/output is suspect, and you simply don't get that large of an
attack surface with other vuln types. Over the years, XSS has
demonstrated a rich set of attack variants, such as the recent 8-bit
XSS bypass discussed by Kurt Huwig
(http://seclists.org/lists/bugtraq/2006/Jun/0549.html)
- Steve
There are many hardening tools (mod_security, iislockdown, IDS/IPS systems
etc) which definitely CAN protect a vulnerable Web application and the
victim from different kinds of attacks, including XSS. But there are no such
tools installed, or they are not properly configured for most web sites. And
I`m asking WHY? Is it the same reason as PayPal ignores XSS (or possibly
other) flaws?
Valery
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