HTML5 for penetration testers
The latest version of the HTML standard comes with many new features that may help the developers prevent security flaws and attacks on their applications. However, it also poses new challenges for the design and implementation of new functionality, which may lead to applications opening up new and unexpected opportunities to attackers due to the use of not-yet-fully understood new technology.
In general, penetration testing an HTML5 application is no different than testing any other web application. In this section, we will cover some of the key features of HTML5, their implication for penetration testing, and some ways that applications implementing these features can be attacked.
New XSS vectors
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a major issue in HTML5 applications, as JavaScript is used to interact with all of the new features from client-side storage to WebSockets to Web Messaging.
Also, HTML includes new elements and tags that may be used as attack vectors for...