How to prevent cross-site scripting?

print · Время на чтение: 8мин · - · Опубликовано · Обновлено

playListen to this article

How to implement cross site scripting prevention?Are you worried about cross-site attacks on your site? The fact is that cross-site scripting attacks are very common. And it is quite possible that your site will sooner or later be attacked by cross-site scripting.

In this type of attack, hackers use the visitor's browser to attack your site. Once they gain access to your website, they can steal sensitive data, store illegal files and folders, redirect your visitors to other malicious sites, manipulate search results with spam keywords, launch attacks against other websites, among other things. Such malicious activities can destroy your website.

The attack will slow down your site and affect your site's ranking in search engines. You will experience a drop in traffic and eventually your income will suffer.

Events can snowball and users will see warnings ahead such as a deceptive site, this site may be hacked on your website in search results, Google may blacklist your site, and your hosting provider may be suspended your site.

But don't worry, you can prevent all of this on your website by taking a few simple steps to prevent cross site scripting. In this article, I'll help you take the right steps to protect your website from cross-site scripting attacks.

The content of the article:

What is a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack?

In a cross-site scripting attack, a hacker breaks into a website by impersonating a visitor. The best way to understand this type of attack is to trace the steps a hacker takes to carry out an attack.

  • Most websites have input fields (such as a contact form, registration form, or comments section) that allow visitors to enter data into the website.
  • These fields are enabled by the plugin. As a rule, plugins make sure that the data inserted into the fields is not malicious, like a code snippet. But if plugins develop an XSS vulnerability, they may allow the visitor to enter malicious or untrusted data.

For example, a vulnerable comment plugin allows visitors to insert malicious links.

  • When you click on a link, malicious code or malicious javascript is activated and you are asked for permission to access your browser's cookies.
  • It looks like your website is asking you to perform a certain function. It is very likely that you will fall for this trick and allow access to your browser's cookies.

By allowing access to your browser's cookies, you are exposing sensitive information to the hacker.

  • Browser cookies store all sorts of information, including your login credentials. By gaining access to your login credentials, a hacker can impersonate you and enter your site.

chrome-browser-cookies

What are the types of XSS or cross site scripting attacks?

There are two types of cross-site scripting attacks. This:

  • Stored (or persistent) XSS attack. The target of this attack is a website visitor.
  • Reflected (or non-persistent) XSS attack. The target of this type of attack is a website.

Cross-site scripting attacks occur due to vulnerable plugins. Hackers crawl the Internet looking for a website using vulnerable plugins such as form or comment plugins. These plugins usually cause user input validation issues. As soon as they discover a website using a vulnerable plugin, they start attacking.

Eventually, the hackers gain access to the victim's browser cookies, which store important information such as website login credentials, e-banking credentials, Facebook, and email credentials, among others.

If the hacker's main goal is to break into your site, he will extract the site's login credentials. This is called reflected XSS attack. But if a hacker targets users or site visitors, they will extract e-banking, Facebook, and Gmail credentials. This is called a stored XSS attack or persistent XSS attack.

Now that you understand cross site scripting and its various forms, let's take a look at how to protect your website from this type of hack.

Measures to prevent cross-site scripting

WordPress sites are created using plugins and themes. Most sites have an input plugin that includes a contact form or comment section that allows visitors to insert data.

Many input plugins develop XSS vulnerabilities over time. As we discussed earlier, hackers can use vulnerabilities to launch cross-site attacks on your site. Since the plugin is an important part of the website, you cannot simply remove it. What you can do is take steps to prevent XSS attacks on your site.

I will show you 5 measures that you need to implement on your site to prevent xss vulnerabilities and protect against XSS attacks.

  1. Install the security plugin
  2. Install the Prevent XSS Vulnerability Plugin
  3. Review comments before posting them
  4. Update your plugins
  5. Use plugins from well-known marketplaces

1. Install the security plugin

A good security plugin will protect your site with a WordPress firewall and allow you to implement site security measures.

The WordPress firewall plugin examines incoming traffic and prevents bad traffic from reaching your site. Visitors (including hackers) access your site from devices such as a smartphone or laptop. Each device is associated with a unique code called an IP address. The firewall scans the Internet for bad IP addresses. IP addresses that have been associated with malicious activity in the past cannot access your website. This way, hackers trying to access your site to implement an XSS attack are blocked from the start.

Site strengthening

These plugins have many measures to harden WordPress security, and one of them is changing the security keys. We know that in a cross-site scripting XSS attack, hackers try to steal the user's browser cookies that contain the user's credentials. However, WordPress stores these credentials in encrypted form. It adds security keys to your password, making it difficult to decrypt.

Use plugins such as:

  • All in one WP Security.
  • Malcare.
  • Wordfence security.

malicious-changes-security-keys

If hackers know what the keys are, they can get your login password. This is why web application security researchers recommend changing WordPress keys every two years or every quarter.

2. Install XSS Vulnerability Prevention Plugin

After installing a trusted security plugin, I recommend installing the plugin Prevent XSS Vulnerability  to define parameters commonly encountered in XSS attacks.

xss-vulnerability-prevention-plugin

For example, an embedded malicious link that hackers might leave in the comments section could use characters such as exclamation points, open parentheses, etc. By blocking these options, the plugin will help prevent cross-site scripting attacks on your WordPress site.

However, this plugin can only provide limited protection against XSS. The firewall plays a critical role in preventing and detecting XSS attacks at an early stage. This is why I first recommend using this plugin in addition to the security plugin.

3. Manually Approve Comments Before They Post

In cross-site scripting attacks, hackers leave malicious links in the comment section in the hope that someone will click on the link.

It's best to read the comments before posting them on your website. WordPress' own comment system as well as popular comment plugins like JetPack, Thrive Comments, Disqus, etc. allow you to manually review comments before accepting and publishing them.

spam comment - manual confirmation

However, identifying malicious links is not easy. Hackers leave genuine comments with links disguised as real ones. Even when examining a link, if you accidentally click on it, it can initiate a hacker attack.

Many site owners prefer to use comment plugins rather than WordPress' own comment system. This is because comment plugins are better at dealing with spam. But, as I mentioned, plugins develop vulnerabilities over time, and this can open your site to hacker attacks.

In order to maintain your comment plugin and fix any content security vulnerabilities, I advise you to update your plugins.

4. Update your plugins

When plugin developers discover XSS vulnerabilities in their software, they quickly fix them and release a security patch. This patch comes as an update.

As soon as you update the plugin on your site, the XSS vulnerability will be fixed. But if updates are delayed, your site becomes vulnerable to cross-site scripting or XSS attacks.

This is because after a security patch is released, information about the vulnerability becomes public. This means that hackers know that there is a vulnerability in the old version of the plugin. Hackers crawl the internet with bots and tools to find WordPress websites that use a specific plugin version that is vulnerable.

If you delay the update, your site will become a target for hacking. They can then exploit a cross-site scripting vulnerability and hack your site. So as a general rule, always keep your site up to date.

5. Buy plugins from trusted marketplaces

If you're using free plugins like Jetpack and Disqus, it's best to download them from the official WordPress repository. If you are going to use premium plugins like Thrive Comment or WpDevArt, purchase them from their official website or trusted marketplaces like Code Canyon, ThemeForest, Evanto, etc.

Reliable marketplaces offer high-quality plugins that reduce the chance of cross-site scripting vulnerabilities.

These days, there are many websites offering free pirated versions of premium plugins. Most of these pirated plugins come pre-installed with malware. Installing them on your site is like opening doors for hackers. Also, pirated plugins do not receive updates, which means that vulnerabilities that occur in plugins remain, leaving your site vulnerable to a hacker attack.

Avoid using pirated plugins from untrusted sources. Only use plugins from trusted marketplaces or the WordPress repository.

With this, I have come to the end of preventing cross-site scripting on your WordPress website. I am sure that if you take these measures, your site will be protected from cross site scripting attacks.

Finally

Protecting your WordPress site from cross site scripting attacks is a step in the right direction when it comes to website security.

However, cross-site scripting is just one of the common types of hacker attacks (such as SQL injection attacks) on WordPress sites. Hackers have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. It is best to implement a comprehensive security solution on your website to prevent cross site scripting attacks along with all other types of WordPress attacks.

Reading this article:

Thanks for reading: SEO HELPER | NICOLA.TOP

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 5 / 5. Vote count: 419

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

Читайте также:

Добавить комментарий

Your email address will not be published. Обязательные поля помечены *

one × two =