Kingdom: Environment

This section includes everything that is outside of the source code but is still critical to the security of the product that is being created. Because the issues covered by this kingdom are not directly related to source code, we separated it from the rest of the kingdoms.

Helmet Misconfiguration: Insecure XSS Filter

Abstract
Setting X-XSS-Protection to 1; mode=block for all versions of Internet Explorer opens up a cross-site scripting weakness in old versions of the browser.
Explanation
X-XSS-Protection is an HTTP header introduced by Microsoft, since adopted by other browsers. This is intended to help stop Cross-Site Scripting attacks from being successful, but inadvertently led to a weakness making safe websites vulnerable[1]. Due to this, this shouldn't be used in older versions of Internet Explorer and should be disabled by setting the header to 0.

Example 1: The following misconfigures the Helmet middleware in an Express application to enable this for all versions of Internet Explorer:


var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var helmet = require('helmet');

...
app.use(helmet.xssFilter({ setOnOldIE: true}));
...
References
[1] Eduardo Vela Nava, David Lindsay Abusing Internet Explorer 8's XSS Filters
[2] Standards Mapping - Common Weakness Enumeration CWE ID 554
[3] Standards Mapping - Common Weakness Enumeration Top 25 2019 [3] CWE ID 020
[4] Standards Mapping - Common Weakness Enumeration Top 25 2020 [3] CWE ID 020
[5] Standards Mapping - Common Weakness Enumeration Top 25 2021 [4] CWE ID 020
[6] Standards Mapping - Common Weakness Enumeration Top 25 2022 [4] CWE ID 020
[7] Standards Mapping - Common Weakness Enumeration Top 25 2023 [6] CWE ID 020
[8] Standards Mapping - Common Weakness Enumeration Top 25 2024 [12] CWE ID 020
[9] Standards Mapping - DISA Control Correlation Identifier Version 2 CCI-002754
[10] Standards Mapping - FIPS200 CM
[11] Standards Mapping - General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Indirect Access to Sensitive Data
[12] Standards Mapping - NIST Special Publication 800-53 Revision 4 SI-10 Information Input Validation (P1)
[13] Standards Mapping - NIST Special Publication 800-53 Revision 5 SI-10 Information Input Validation
[14] Standards Mapping - OWASP Application Security Verification Standard 4.0 5.1.3 Input Validation Requirements (L1 L2 L3), 5.1.4 Input Validation Requirements (L1 L2 L3), 14.1.3 Build (L2 L3)
[15] Standards Mapping - OWASP Mobile 2014 M1 Weak Server Side Controls
[16] Standards Mapping - OWASP Mobile 2024 M8 Security Misconfiguration
[17] Standards Mapping - OWASP Top 10 2004 A10 Insecure Configuration Management
[18] Standards Mapping - OWASP Top 10 2010 A6 Security Misconfiguration
[19] Standards Mapping - OWASP Top 10 2013 A5 Security Misconfiguration
[20] Standards Mapping - OWASP Top 10 2017 A6 Security Misconfiguration
[21] Standards Mapping - OWASP Top 10 2021 A05 Security Misconfiguration
[22] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 1.1 Requirement 6.5.10
[23] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 1.2 Requirement 6.3.1.1
[24] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 2.0 Requirement 6.5.1
[25] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 3.0 Requirement 6.5.1
[26] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 3.1 Requirement 6.5.1
[27] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 3.2 Requirement 6.5.1
[28] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 3.2.1 Requirement 6.5.1
[29] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 4.0 Requirement 6.2.4
[30] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 4.0.1 Requirement 6.2.4
[31] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Software Security Framework 1.0 Control Objective 4.2 - Critical Asset Protection
[32] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Software Security Framework 1.1 Control Objective 4.2 - Critical Asset Protection
[33] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Software Security Framework 1.2 Control Objective 4.2 - Critical Asset Protection
[34] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 3.1 APP3510 CAT I
[35] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 3.4 APP3510 CAT I
[36] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 3.5 APP3510 CAT I
[37] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 3.6 APP3510 CAT I
[38] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 3.7 APP3510 CAT I
[39] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 3.9 APP3510 CAT I
[40] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 3.10 APP3510 CAT I
[41] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 4.2 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[42] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 4.3 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[43] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 4.4 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[44] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 4.5 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[45] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 4.6 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[46] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 4.7 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[47] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 4.8 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[48] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 4.9 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[49] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 4.10 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[50] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 4.11 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[51] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 4.1 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[52] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 5.1 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[53] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 5.2 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[54] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 5.3 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[55] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 6.1 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[56] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 6.2 APSC-DV-002560 CAT I
[57] Standards Mapping - Web Application Security Consortium Version 2.00 Improper Input Handling (WASC-20)
desc.dataflow.javascript.helmet_misconfiguration_insecure_xss_filter