javascriptjqueryxmlsecurityxxe

XXE vulnerabilities in Javascript


Is it true (or at least makes sense) that one can have a XXE attack on Javascript? This is, when trying to parse XML with JS, does it process external entities? But this parsing is executed client side, am I right? What harm can it do to a server?

How can we prevent such attacks on Javascript XML DOM or Jquery or alike?

Thank you! Cheers


Solution

  • No, maybe old internet explorers were vulnerable, but current browsers not. (I tested it about 2 years ago with ie, ff, chrome, opera desktop browsers. I could not find an installer to try out, but there were rumors, that this kind of attack is maybe possible with ie5 or ie6. So this is just interesting, not a real threat by client side programming.)

    In general, if you want to prevent such an attack, you have to turn off processing external entities in your XML parser, that's all.