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This noncompliant code example displays input obtained from a database directly uses the MVC concept of the Java EE based Spring Framework to display some data to the user without performing any output validation or encodingencoding or escaping it.

Code Block
bgColor#FFCCCC
@RequestMapping("/getnotifications.htm")
public class BadOutput {
  // description and input are String variables containing values obtained from a database
  // description = "description" and input = "<script> executable code </script>"
  public static void display(String description, String input) {
    // Display to the user or pass description and input to another system
  } ModelAndView getNotifications(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response){
        ModelAndView mv = new ModelAndView();
        try{
           UserInfo userDetails = getUserInfo();
           List<Map<String,Object>> list = new ArrayList<Map<String,Object>>();
           List<Notification> notificationList = notificationService.getNotificationsForUserId( userDetails.getPersonId());
           
           for(Notification notification: notificationList) {
               Map<String,Object>map = new HashMap<String,Object>();
               map.put("id",notification.getId());
               map.put( "message", notification.getMessage());
               list.add( map);
           }
            
           mv.addObject("Notifications",list);
        }
        catch(Throwable t){
            // log to file and handle
        }
 
       return mv;
}

Compliant Solution

This compliant solution defines a ValidateOutput class that normalizes the output to a known character set, performs output validation using a white-list and encodes any non-specified data values to enforce a double checking mechanism. Note that required white-listing patterns may vary according to the specific needs of different fields [OWASP 2008].

Code Block
bgColor#ccccff
public class ValidateOutput {
  // Allows only alphanumeric characters and spaces
  private Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("^[a-zA-Z0-9\\s]{0,20}$");

  // Validates and encodes the input field based on a whitelist
  private String validate(String name, String input) throws ValidationException {
    String canonical = normalize(input);

    if(!pattern.matcher(canonical).matches()) {
      throw new ValidationException("Improper format in " + name + " field");
    }
    
    // Performs output encoding for non valid characters 
    canonical = HTMLEntityEncode(canonical);
    return canonical;
  }

  // Normalizes to known instances 	
  private String normalize(String input) {
    String canonical = java.text.Normalizer.normalize(input, Normalizer.Form.NFKC);
    return canonical;
  }

  // Encodes non valid data
  public static String HTMLEntityEncode(String input) {
    StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();

    for (int i = 0; i < input.length(); i++) {
      char ch = input.charAt(i);
        if (Character.isLetterOrDigit(ch) || Character.isWhitespace(ch)) {
          sb.append(ch);
        } else {
          sb.append("&#" + (int)ch + ";");
        }
    }
    return sb.toString();
  }

  // description and input are String variables containing values obtained from a database
  // description = "description" and input = "2 items available"
  public static void display(String description, String input) throws ValidationException {
    ValidateOutput vo = new ValidateOutput();
    vo.validate(description, input);
    // Pass to another system or display to the user
  }
}

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See, also, the method weblogic.servlet.security.Utils.encodeXSS().

Applicability

Failure to encode or escape output before it is displayed or passed across a trust boundary can result in the execution of arbitrary code.

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Guideline

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Severity

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Likelihood

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Remediation Cost

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Priority

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Level

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IDS50-JG

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high

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probable

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medium

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P12

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Related Vulnerabilities

GERONIMO-1474

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