HELP! * GREY=local LOCAL HTML version of Foils prepared 15 January 1997

Foil 75 TAINTING! Security in JavaScript

From JavaScript Tutorial for CPS616 Technologies of the Information Age 1997 Basic Information Track of CPS -- Spring Semester 97. by Geoffrey C. Fox * See also color IMAGE
Addon
Tainting ensures that certain properties cannot be freely used
These "taintable" properties include cookie, links, title etc in document; most interesting properties of forms; history; location
Once you access such a property from a SERVER different from that which spawned JavaScript page, then your current statement and everything derived from it is "tainted"
  • Note testing to see if a variable is tainted, taints your program and so one cannot write useful JavaScript programs involving tainted quantities and networking
tainted variables may NOT be passed over the Network to other servers e.g. to a CGI Script
You can control the tainting of pages and untaint them so that remote servers can freely use
  • However I don't think anybody does this ......



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