In an age where JavaScript is so ubiquitous that some websites won't even load if you don't enable in your browser, cross-site scripting hacks are everywhere - letting malicious or merely mischievous hacker create links that have some very unintended consequences on websites that are not careful to keep from executing other people's code. Most are run-of-the-mill and hardly worth writing about, but reader Harry Sintonen writes in with a vulnerability on the CIA's site that THREAT LEVEL can't resist. For those of you who don't see it after clicking through, notice that the links lead to the CIA's site, but displays a recent THREAT LEVEL story. Here the CIA search box fails to rip out characters that will run as a script when the site tries to process the search query.
This story went up at 3:26pm, and it's still working at 8:45pm. This would be great for a prank form... Update: This is still working today. So much for fast response.. Here is the obligatory memestreams @ cia.gov link. CIA.gov XSS | Threat Level |