CAPEC-85: AJAX Footprinting
Description
This attack utilizes the frequent client-server roundtrips in Ajax conversation to scan a system. While Ajax does not open up new vulnerabilities per se, it does optimize them from an attacker point of view. A common first step for an attacker is to footprint the target environment to understand what attacks will work. Since footprinting relies on enumeration, the conversational pattern of rapid, multiple requests and responses that are typical in Ajax applications enable an attacker to look for many vulnerabilities, well-known ports, network locations and so on. The knowledge gained through Ajax fingerprinting can be used to support other attacks, such as XSS.
- Likelihood of attack
- High
- Typical severity
- Low
- Abstraction
- DetailedA low-level, detailed pattern, often for a particular technology.
Mechanism of attack: Collect and Analyze Information
Prerequisites
- The user must allow JavaScript to execute in their browser
Skills required
- MediumTo land and launch a script on victim's machine with appropriate footprinting logic for enumerating services and vulnerabilities in JavaScript
Consequences
- Confidentiality
Read Data
Mitigations
- Design: Use browser technologies that do not allow client side scripting.
- Implementation: Perform input validation for all remote content.
Related weaknesses (CWE)
- CWE-20Improper Input Validation
- CWE-79Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CWE-86Improper Neutralization of Invalid Characters in Identifiers in Web Pages
- CWE-96Improper Neutralization of Directives in Statically Saved Code ('Static Code Injection')
- CWE-113Improper Neutralization of CRLF Sequences in HTTP Headers ('HTTP Request/Response Splitting')
- CWE-116Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output
- CWE-184Incomplete List of Disallowed Inputs
- CWE-348Use of Less Trusted Source
- CWE-692Incomplete Denylist to Cross-Site Scripting