Non-Profit XSS Vulnerability Archive Launched

This week saw the launch of XSSposed, an open, non-profit Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability archive that aims to replace the defunct xssed.org resource.

XSSposed gives any security researcher the opportunity to responsibly disclose XSS flaws on any website and receive recognition for their efforts. Meanwhile website administrators can check whether their site is secure.

Since Tuesday, XSSposed has collected active vulnerabilities for 72 websites including those that belong to Kaspersky, Gizmodo and IBM.

For the greater good

XSS is the most common type of security vulnerability, often found in web-based applications, their servers, or plug-in systems on which they rely. It enables the attacker to inject client-side script into Web pages viewed by other users. When abused, some of these vulnerabilities can do little more than annoy the visitors, while others can seriously compromise the security of data.

The administration of the new XSS archive says that all mirrors of vulnerabilities are independently verified before being published. It has promised to never remove any mirrors for political or business reasons, irrespective of who is the researcher and who is the website owner.

The archive accepts any XSS vulnerabilities that can enable the attacker to display a JavaScript pop-up with ‘XSSPOSED’ written in it, including iFrame injections and open redirects.

Researchers can submit their findings anonymously, under a nickname, or even a real name. All members are rated, and the Top 50 most active contributors are marked with a golden medal.

In order to limit the extent to which the archive can be abused by actual hackers, XSSposed limits the number of requests for whether a certain vulnerability has been fixed to one a day.

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