The following unauthenticated Client-Side Template Injection (CSTI) resulting in a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered in a private bug bounty program. While the vulnerability could only be exploited in case a user had no active session at the application, chained with an SSO gadget, a malicious actor could have still gained access to the user’s account and performed actions on behalf of the user.

With the rise of Single-Sign-On (SSO) and especially OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect (OIDC), the attack surface of web applications has increased significantly. In this post, I will show how to escalate a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability to an Account Takeover (ATO) by abusing OAuth2/OIDC gadgets and how to prevent such attacks.

This is a post about a Cross-Site-Scripting (XSS) vulnerability that was identified within the web version of a large Chinese messenger and payment platform. The vulnerability could have been missed easily, as the vulnerable parameter was manually guessed.