XHUNTER: Tracking XSS on the Net

Objective

"Code-injection attacks through Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) in the web browser
have observed a significant increase over the previous years. According to a
September-2009 report published by the SANS Institute, attacks against web
applications constitute more than 60% of the total attack attempts observed on
the Internet. Web application vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and
Cross-Site Scripting flaws in open-source as well as custom-built applications
account for more than 80% of the vulnerabilities being discovered. In this
project we propose the design and development of a prototype that can inspect
passively the network for extracting URLs that can potentially exploit a web
application, through XSS. The detector assumes that all URLs that contain
parts that can produce a valid JavaScript syntax tree are considered
suspicious. We will develop tools that identify text fragments of URLs,
exchanged in the network, that produce a valid JavaScript syntax-tree of high
depth. These URLs are considered as possible XSS exploitation attempts."

Fields of science

• natural sciences › computer and information sciences › internet
• natural sciences › computer and information sciences › databases › relational databases

Programme(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF - Marie Curie Action: "International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development"

Call for proposal

FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

MC-IOF - International Outgoing Fellowships (IOF)

Coordinator

IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS

Address

N Plastira Str 100
70013 Irakleio
Greece

Activity type

Research Organisations

Administrative Contact

Evangelos Markatos (Prof.)

Links

EU contribution

€ 219 392,80