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[e] (0) Mention cookie-bombing in the appcache section
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Affected topics: Offline Web Applications, Security

git-svn-id: https://svn.whatwg.org/webapps@8823 340c8d12-0b0e-0410-8428-c7bf67bfef74
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Hixie committed Sep 26, 2014
1 parent 00641cc commit 2a46d9b
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9 changes: 6 additions & 3 deletions complete.html
Expand Up @@ -62174,20 +62174,23 @@ <h4 id=security-concerns-with-offline-applications-caches>7.7.9 Security concern
whose manifest is declared as that first file. Once the user has been directed to that second
file, all subsequent accesses to any file covered by the given fallback namespace while either the
user or the site is offline will instead show that second file. Targetted denial-of-service
attacks can be used to ensure that the site appears offline.</p>
attacks or cookie bombing attacks (where the client is made to send so many cookies that the
server refuses to process the request) can be used to ensure that the site appears offline.</p>

<p>To mitigate this, manifests can only specify fallbacks that are in the same path as the
manifest itself. This means that a content injection upload vulnerability in a particular
directory on a server can only be escalated to a take-over of that directory and its
subdirectories. If there is no way to inject a file into the root directory, the entire site
cannot be taken over.</p>

<p>If a site has been attacked in this way, simply removing the offending manifest will eventually
<p>If a site has been attacked in this way, simply removing the offending manifest might eventually
clear the problem, since the next time the manifest is updated, a 404 error will be seen, and the
user agent will clear the cache. "Eventually" is the key word here, however; while the attack on
the user or server is ongoing, such that connections from an affected user to the affected site
are blocked, the user agent will simply assume that the user is offline and will continue to use
the hostile manifest.</p>
the hostile manifest. Unfortunately, if a cookie bombing attack has also been used, merely
removing the manifest is insufficient; in addition, the server has to be configured to return a
404 or 410 response instead of the 413 "Request Entity Too Large" response.</p>

<p>TLS does not inherently protect a site from this attack, since the attack relies on content
being served from the server itself. Not using application caches also does not prevent this
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9 changes: 6 additions & 3 deletions index
Expand Up @@ -62174,20 +62174,23 @@ NETWORK:
whose manifest is declared as that first file. Once the user has been directed to that second
file, all subsequent accesses to any file covered by the given fallback namespace while either the
user or the site is offline will instead show that second file. Targetted denial-of-service
attacks can be used to ensure that the site appears offline.</p>
attacks or cookie bombing attacks (where the client is made to send so many cookies that the
server refuses to process the request) can be used to ensure that the site appears offline.</p>

<p>To mitigate this, manifests can only specify fallbacks that are in the same path as the
manifest itself. This means that a content injection upload vulnerability in a particular
directory on a server can only be escalated to a take-over of that directory and its
subdirectories. If there is no way to inject a file into the root directory, the entire site
cannot be taken over.</p>

<p>If a site has been attacked in this way, simply removing the offending manifest will eventually
<p>If a site has been attacked in this way, simply removing the offending manifest might eventually
clear the problem, since the next time the manifest is updated, a 404 error will be seen, and the
user agent will clear the cache. "Eventually" is the key word here, however; while the attack on
the user or server is ongoing, such that connections from an affected user to the affected site
are blocked, the user agent will simply assume that the user is offline and will continue to use
the hostile manifest.</p>
the hostile manifest. Unfortunately, if a cookie bombing attack has also been used, merely
removing the manifest is insufficient; in addition, the server has to be configured to return a
404 or 410 response instead of the 413 "Request Entity Too Large" response.</p>

<p>TLS does not inherently protect a site from this attack, since the attack relies on content
being served from the server itself. Not using application caches also does not prevent this
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9 changes: 6 additions & 3 deletions source
Expand Up @@ -84016,20 +84016,23 @@ NETWORK:
whose manifest is declared as that first file. Once the user has been directed to that second
file, all subsequent accesses to any file covered by the given fallback namespace while either the
user or the site is offline will instead show that second file. Targetted denial-of-service
attacks can be used to ensure that the site appears offline.</p>
attacks or cookie bombing attacks (where the client is made to send so many cookies that the
server refuses to process the request) can be used to ensure that the site appears offline.</p>

<p>To mitigate this, manifests can only specify fallbacks that are in the same path as the
manifest itself. This means that a content injection upload vulnerability in a particular
directory on a server can only be escalated to a take-over of that directory and its
subdirectories. If there is no way to inject a file into the root directory, the entire site
cannot be taken over.</p>

<p>If a site has been attacked in this way, simply removing the offending manifest will eventually
<p>If a site has been attacked in this way, simply removing the offending manifest might eventually
clear the problem, since the next time the manifest is updated, a 404 error will be seen, and the
user agent will clear the cache. "Eventually" is the key word here, however; while the attack on
the user or server is ongoing, such that connections from an affected user to the affected site
are blocked, the user agent will simply assume that the user is offline and will continue to use
the hostile manifest.</p>
the hostile manifest. Unfortunately, if a cookie bombing attack has also been used, merely
removing the manifest is insufficient; in addition, the server has to be configured to return a
404 or 410 response instead of the 413 "Request Entity Too Large" response.</p>

<p>TLS does not inherently protect a site from this attack, since the attack relies on content
being served from the server itself. Not using application caches also does not prevent this
Expand Down

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