Cross site scripting | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Millions of WordPress websites are at risks of being completely hijacked by the hackers due to a critical cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability present in the default installation of the widely used content management system. The cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability, uncovered by the security researcher reported by Robert Abela of Security firm  Netsparker . Wordpress vulnerability resides in Genericons webfont package that is part of default WordPress Twenty Fifteen Theme. Here comes the threat: The XSS vulnerability has been identified as a " DOM-based ," which means the flaw resides in the document object model (DOM) that is responsible for text, images, headers, and links representation in a web browser. The easy-to-exploit DOM-based Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability occurred due to an insecure file included with Genericons that allowed the Document Object Model Environment in the victim's browser to be modified. What's DOM-Bas

A security researcher has discovered a simple but critical vulnerability in Google-owned YouTube that could be exploited by anyone to knock down the whole business of the popular video sharing website. Kamil Hismatullin , a Russian security bod, found a simple logical vulnerability that allowed him to delete any video from YouTube in one shot . While looking for Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) or Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) flaws in YouTube Creator Studio, Hismatullin came across a simple logical bug that could wipe up any video by just sending an identity number of any video in a post request against any session token. The bug was simple but critical as it could be exploited by an attacker to fool YouTube easily into deleting any video on its system. "I've fought the urge to [delete] Bieber's channel," Hismatullin wrote in his blog post . "Luckily no Bieber videos were harmed." Citing the consequences of the issue, Hismatullin said "this vulne

Over the past two years, a shocking  51% of organizations surveyed in a leading industry report have been compromised by a cyberattack.  Yes, over half.  And this, in a world where enterprises deploy  an average of 53 different security solutions  to safeguard their digital domain.  Alarming? Absolutely. A recent survey of CISOs and CIOs, commissioned by Pentera and conducted by Global Surveyz Research, offers a quantifiable glimpse into this evolving battlefield, revealing a stark contrast between the growing risks and the tightening budget constraints under which cybersecurity professionals operate. With this report, Pentera has once again taken a magnifying glass to the state of pentesting to release its annual report about today's pentesting practices. Engaging with 450 security executives from North America, LATAM, APAC, and EMEA—all in VP or C-level positions at organizations with over 1,000 employees—the report paints a current picture of modern security validation prac

Another popular WordPress plugin by Yoast has been found to be vulnerable to a critical flaw that could be exploited by hackers to hijack the affected website. The critical vulnerability actually resides in the highly popular Google Analytics by Yoast plugin, which allows WordPress admins to monitor website traffic by connecting the plugin to their Google Analytics account. The Google Analytics by Yoast WordPress plugin has been downloaded nearly 7 Million times with more than 1 million active installs, which makes the issue rather more serious. A week back, we reported that all the versions of ' WordPress SEO by Yoast ' was vulnerable to Blind SQL Injection web application vulnerability that allowed an attacker to execute arbitrary payload on the victim WordPress site in order to take control of it. However, the Google Analytics by Yoast plugin is vulnerable to persistent cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability that allows hackers to execute malicious PHP code on the server, whic

Security researchers have warned of a pair of vulnerabilities in the Google Play Store that could allow cyber crooks to install and launch malicious applications remotely on Android devices. Tod Beardsley, technical lead for the Metasploit Framework at Rapid7 warns that an X-Frame-Options (XFO) vulnerability – when combined with a recent Android WebView (Jelly Bean) flaw – creates a way for hackers to quietly install any arbitrary app from the Play store onto victims' device even without the users consent. USERS AFFECTED The vulnerability affects users running Android version 4.3 Jelly Bean and earlier versions of Android that no longer receive official security updates from Android security team for WebView , a core component used to render web pages on an Android device . Also, users who have installed third party browsers are affected. According to the researcher, the web browser in Android 4.3 and prior that are vulnerable to a Universal Cross-Site Scripting (

A serious vulnerability has been discovered in all the latest versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer that allows malicious hackers to inject malicious code into users' websites and steal cookies, session and login credentials. UNIVERSAL XSS BUG WITH SAME ORIGIN POLICY BYPASS The vulnerability is known as a Universal Cross Site Scripting (XSS) flaw. It allows attackers to bypass the Same-Origin Policy, a fundamental browser security mechanism, in order to launch highly credible phishing attacks or hijack users' accounts on any website. The Same Origin Policy is one of the guiding principles that seek to protect users' browsing experience. SOP actually prevents one site from accessing or modifying the browser properties, such as cookies, location, response etc, by any other site, ensuring that no third-party can inject code without the authorization of the owner of the website. DEMONSTRATION Recently, a proof-of-concept exploit published by a group, known as Deusen, sho

A critical cross-site scripting ( XSS ) vulnerability in the Google Apps administrator console allowed cyber criminals to force a Google Apps admins to execute just about any request on the https://admin.google.com/ domain. The Google Apps admin console allows administrators to manage their organization's account. Administrators can use the console to add new users, configure permissions, manage security settings and enable Google services for your domain. The feature is primarily used by many businesses, especially those using Gmail as the e-mail service for their domain. The XSS flaw allowed attackers to force the admin to do the following actions: Creating new users with "super admin" rights Disabling two-factor authentication ( 2FA ) and other security measures from existing accounts or from multiple domains Modifying domain settings so that all incoming e-mails are redirected to addresses controlled by the attacker Hijack an account/email by resett

A serious security vulnerability has been discovered in the default web browser of the Android OS lower than 4.4 running on a large number of Android devices that allows an attacker to bypass the Same Origin Policy (SOP). The Android Same Origin Policy (SOP) vulnerability ( CVE-2014-6041 ) was first disclosed right at the beginning of September 2014 by an independent security researcher Rafay Baloch. He found that the AOSP (Android Open Source Platform) browser installed on Android 4.2.1 is vulnerable to Same Origin Policy (SOP) bypass bug that allows one website to steal data from another. Security researchers at Trend micro in collaboration with Facebook have discovered many cases of Facebook users being targeted by cyber attacks that actively attempt to exploit this particular flaw in the web browser because the Metasploit exploit code is publicly available, which made the exploitation of the vulnerability much easier. The Same Origin Policy is one of the guidin

Alibaba Group has patched a major security vulnerability in one of its e-commerce portals that exposed account details of tens of millions of Merchants and shoppers to cyber criminals. An Israeli application security firm, AppSec Labs, found a Cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in AliExpress, the company's English language e-commerce site that was found vulnerable to similar flaw a week ago that compromised personal information of Alibaba customers. The flaw was fixed shortly after Cybermoon security firm disclosed it to Alibaba. AliExpress is an online marketplace owned by Chinese E-Commerce giant Alibaba.com, also known as Google of China. The company serves more than 300 Million active users from more than 200 countries including the U.S., Russia and Brazil. But the critical vulnerability found by the researcher could allow an attacker to hijack merchant's account. Using AliExpress XSS vulnerability an attacker can inject any malicious payload script as value

A popular Anti-virus software Avira that provides free security software to its customers with Secure Backup service is vulnerable to a critical web application vulnerability that could allow an attacker to take over users' account, putting millions of its users' account at risk. Avira is very popular for their free security software that comes with its own real-time protection module against malware and a secure backup service. Avira was considered to be the sixth largest antivirus vendor in 2012 with over 100 million customers worldwide. A 16 year-old security researcher ' Mazen Gamal ' from Egypt told The Hacker News that Avira Website is vulnerable to CSRF (Cross-site request forgery) vulnerability that allows him to hijack users' accounts and access to their online secure cloud backup files. CSRF VULNERABILITY TO  ACCOUNT TAKEOVER Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF or XSRF) is a method of attacking a Web site in which an intruder masquerades as a legitimate

If you came across a Kindle e-book download link from any suspicious sources or somewhere other than Amazon itself, check twice before you proceed download. As downloading an eBook could put your personal information at risk. A security researcher has uncovered a security hole in Amazon's Kindle Library that could lead to cross-site scripting ( XSS ) attacks and account compromises when you upload a malicious ebook. AMAZON CREDENTIALS – BOON FOR HACKERS The flaw affects the " Manage Your Content and Devices " and " Manage your Kindle " services in Amazon's web-based Kindle Library, which could allow a hacker to inject and hide malicious lines of code into into e-book metadata, such as the title text of an eBook, in order to compromise the security of your Amazon account. Gaining access to your Amazon account credentials is one of the biggest boons for hackers, as they can set-up new credit cards in your account or max out the current ones on file with some big

Yahoo offers a web browser toolbar which includes apps for leading sites like Facebook, Yahoo! Mail, Weather and News. Yahoo Toolbar also known as Y! Toolbar is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome web browsers. Yahoo Toolbar is one of the most popular and widely installed web browser add-on/extension. Many popular softwares like Java Update and thousands of free software including some Antivirus products promote Yahoo toolbar and bundled it into their installer files. A vulnerability has been reported in Yahoo Toolbar by Security Researcher Behrouz SAdeghipour , which causes cross site scripting flaw on popular websites like Flickr, Yahoo, Google, Pinterest, Youtube, Amazon, Twitter and many more. Yahoo Toolbar vulnerability triggers all previous non-exploitable XSS payloads on popular websites as shown below in multiple screenshots provided by Behrouz to The Hacker News .  The vulnerability resides in the way Toolbar intercept and

Multiple Serious vulnerabilities have been discovered in the most famous ' All In One SEO Pack ' plugin for WordPress, that put millions of Wordpress websites at risk. WordPress is easy to setup and use, that's why large number of people like it. But if you or your company is using ' All in One SEO Pack ' Wordpress plugin to optimize the website ranking in search engines, then you should update your SEO plugin immediately to the latest version of All in One SEO Pack 2.1.6 . Today, All in One SEO Pack plugin team has released an emergency security update that patches two critical privilege escalation vulnerabilities and one cross site scripting (XSS) flaw, discovered by security researchers at Sucuri, a web monitoring and malware clean up service. More than 73 million websites on the Internet run their websites on the WordPress publishing platform and more than 15 million websites are currently using All in One SEO Pack plugin for search engine optimization. Acco

A group of Indian Hackers dubbed as I-HOS TEAM has successfully defaced a page on the sub domain of Oracle Corporation, biggest provider of enterprise software, computer hardware and Services. The users visiting the domain are being greeted with a custom webpage with black background and the theme song of an Indian Movie " BOSS ". The defacement page is displaying a logo with title " IHOS - Indian Hackers Online Squad " with a quotation for all the Indian hackers shows, " LOVE TO ALL INDIAN HACKERS OUT THERE. " Neither the website nor the server was actually compromised, but the Hacker going by online alias 'Bl@Ck Dr@GoN', actually found a page on the Oracle website that allows him to inject HTML/JavaScript code into the Oracle University Electronic Attendance webpage in order to modify the content, as shown in the screenshot provided to The Hacker News: Hacker told THN that anyone is able to edit the Student name on the website and can insert any code, which is not san

When it comes to Android apps, even the simplest app could greatly compromise your privacy and security. Injecting malicious JavaScript into Android applications has drawn an increased attention from the hacking community as its market share spikes. According to security researcher Jeremy S. from Singapore, a critical vulnerability in the Feedly app left millions of android app users vulnerable to the JavaScript infections. Feedly is a very popular app available for iOS and Android devices, also integrated into hundreds of other third party apps, which offers its users to browse the content of their favourite blogs, magazines, websites and more at one place via RSS feed subscriptions. According to Google Play Store, more than 5 Million users have installed Feedly app into their Android devices. In a blogpost , the researcher reported that Feedly is vulnerable to JavaScript injection attack, which is originally referred as 'cross-site scripting' or XSS vulnerability, allows

An application layer or 'layer 7' distributed denial of service ( DDoS ) attacks is one of the most complicated web attack that disguised to look like legitimate traffic but targets specific areas of a website, making it even more difficult to detect and mitigate. Just Yesterday Cloud-based security service provider ' Incapsula ' detected a unique application layer DDoS attack, carried out using traffic hijacking techniques. DDoS attack flooded one of their client with over 20 million GET requests, originating from browsers of over 22,000 Internet users. What makes this case especially interesting is the fact that the attack was enabled by persistent XSS vulnerability in one of the world's largest and most popular site - one of the domains on Alexa's " Top 50 " list. XSS  vulnerability  to Large-Scale DDoS Attack Incapsula has not disclosed the name of vulnerable website for security reasons, but mentioned it as a high profile video content provider

Oren Hafif , a security researcher has discovered a critical vulnerability in the Password reset process of Google account that allows an attacker to hijack any account. He managed to trick Google users into handing over their passwords via a simple spear-phishing attack by leveraging a number of flaws i.e. Cross-site request forgery (CSRF), and cross-site scripting (XSS), and a flow bypass. In a proof of concept video demonstration, the attacker sends his victim a fake " Confirm account ownership " email, claiming to come from Google. The link mention in the mail instructs the recipient to confirm the ownership of the account and urged user to change their password. The link from the email apparently points to a HTTPS  google.com URL, but it actually leads the victim to the attacker's website because of CSRF attack with a customized email address. The Google HTTPS page will will ask the victim to confirm the ownership by entering his last password and then will ask to res

Today more and more companies are looking for external security researchers to help identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in their applications through Bug Bounty Programs. While companies like Facebook and Google are paying out hundreds of dollars to researchers for reporting security vulnerabilities, But according to Yahoo! Your email's security worth only $12.50 ! Yahoo is not having very good run in the reputation department when it comes to user security. Researchers at High-Tech Bridge found a few bugs, and were not exactly impressed with Yahoo's reward. They pointed out cross-site scripting (XSS) flaws affecting two Yahoo domains and in return they received $12.50 bounties for each vulnerability they found. This amount was given as a discount code that can only be used in the Yahoo Company Store, which sells Yahoo's corporate T-shirts, cups, pens and other accessories. This isn't exactly a great reward for spending time reporting security vulnerabilities

Two Factor Authentication is becoming a standard in the enterprise security space in an attempt to dually secure end users against malicious attacks.  Following Dropbox, Google and virtually everyone else, LinkedIn added two-factor authentication to its login process today. LinkedIn will provide temporary codes for two-factor authentication  through SMS messages. The extra step is designed to lessen the chances of computer hackers breaking into user accounts. To turn on two-step verification on LinkedIn, hit the icon in the top-right corner of the site, click on "Privacy & Settings," and then on "Manage security settings" at the bottom. The site has provided instructions to its 225 million users on how to turn on the optional service. On other side, today @The_Pr0ph3t, whitehat Hacker from Spain reported a Cross Site Scripting Vulnerability in LinkedIn Developer site (developer.linkedin.com).  Flaw still exists on website at the time of writing, and hacker

When coders and online security researchers find errors in websites or software, the companies behind the programs will often pay out a bounty to the person who discovered the issue. The programs are intended to create an incentive for researchers to privately report issues and allow vendors to release fixes before hackers take advantage of flaws. A 17-year-old German student says he found a security flaw in PayPal's website but was denied a reward because he's too young. On PayPal's website, the company lists the terms for rewarding people who find bugs, but mentions nothing about the age of the discoverer.  The details of the vulnerability, i.e cross-site scripting flaw (XSS), is posted on Full Disclosure section. In Past we have seen that many times PayPal tried to cheat with new security researchers by replying various reasons on reporting bugs i.e "already reported by someone else", "domain / sub-domain is not under bounty program", &q