Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Hacking Front-End Apps
Search
Alex Sexton
February 12, 2014
Technology
3
2.4k
Hacking Front-End Apps
My talk on client side web security as given at the jQuery Conference 2014 in San Diego
Alex Sexton
February 12, 2014
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Alex Sexton
See All by Alex Sexton
Your Very Own Component Library
slexaxton
5
740
Front-End Ops - jQuery Conf Chicago 2014
slexaxton
1
1k
Practicing Safe Script
slexaxton
18
2.9k
Other Decks in Technology
See All in Technology
歴史から学ぶ、Goのメモリ管理基礎
logica0419
14
2.7k
20260114_データ横丁 新年LT大会:2026年の抱負
taromatsui_cccmkhd
0
120
Oracle Database@Google Cloud:サービス概要のご紹介
oracle4engineer
PRO
1
910
「駆動」って言葉、なんかカッコイイ_Mitz
comucal
PRO
0
140
AI時代のアジャイルチームを目指して ー スクラムというコンフォートゾーンからの脱却 ー / Toward Agile Teams in the Age of AI
takaking22
11
6.4k
コミュニティが持つ「学びと成長の場」としての作用 / RSGT2026
ama_ch
0
230
チームで安全にClaude Codeを利用するためのプラクティス / team-claude-code-practices
tomoki10
7
3.2k
Models vs Bounded Contexts for Domain Modularizati...
ewolff
0
160
Data Hubグループ 紹介資料
sansan33
PRO
0
2.6k
ECS_EKS以外の選択肢_ROSA入門_.pdf
masakiokuda
1
130
re:Invent2025 セッションレポ ~Spec-driven development with Kiro~
nrinetcom
PRO
2
170
「リリースファースト」の実感を届けるには 〜停滞するチームに変化を起こすアプローチ〜 #RSGT2026
kintotechdev
0
870
Featured
See All Featured
A designer walks into a library…
pauljervisheath
210
24k
Claude Code どこまでも/ Claude Code Everywhere
nwiizo
61
51k
Introduction to Domain-Driven Design and Collaborative software design
baasie
1
550
The Hidden Cost of Media on the Web [PixelPalooza 2025]
tammyeverts
2
130
Docker and Python
trallard
47
3.7k
Jamie Indigo - Trashchat’s Guide to Black Boxes: Technical SEO Tactics for LLMs
techseoconnect
PRO
0
39
Neural Spatial Audio Processing for Sound Field Analysis and Control
skoyamalab
0
140
Have SEOs Ruined the Internet? - User Awareness of SEO in 2025
akashhashmi
0
230
We Analyzed 250 Million AI Search Results: Here's What I Found
joshbly
0
430
Dominate Local Search Results - an insider guide to GBP, reviews, and Local SEO
greggifford
PRO
0
32
Leading Effective Engineering Teams in the AI Era
addyosmani
9
1.5k
Taking LLMs out of the black box: A practical guide to human-in-the-loop distillation
inesmontani
PRO
3
2k
Transcript
Hacking Front-End Apps Alex Sexton
I work at .
which is in . California
but…
I live in . Texas
The web has a lot in common with Texas.
“The wild west.”
In 1985, Texas had a problem.
None
Littering
Some Texans defended their “God-given right to litter.”
ಠ_ಠ
There were fines for littering.
photo by Curtis Gregory Perry
But no one seemed to care.
The state tried some slogans.
None
But these slogans apparently did not resonate with the core
offenders
Males 18-24 “Bubbas in Pickup Trucks”
In 1985 Texas tried a new campaign:
None
The campaign reduced litter on Texas highways ! 72% !
from 1986 to 1990.
My point is…
“Hey everyone, you should make your websites more secure because
it’s important.” ! Probably isn’t going to do the trick.
DON’T! MESS! WITH! XSS Also probably won’t work.
Web developers, not security researchers, are the core audience.
Web security is hard.
“All you have to do is never make a single
mistake.” - I Think Mike West
“I discount the probability of perfection.” - Alex Russell
Content Injection
None
None
None
Everyone has a friend that always seems to pick “<script>alert(‘hacked!’);</script>”
as their username.
My User Agent
My Friend, Mike Taylor’s User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac
OS X 10.9; rv:25.0) <script>alert(‘lol’);</script> Gecko/20100101 Firefox/25.0
My Friend, Mike Taylor’s User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac
OS X 10.9; rv:25.0) <script>alert(‘lol’);</script> Gecko/20100101 Firefox/25.0
ಠ_ಠ
Samy
None
None
None
ಠ_ಠ
So let’s just detect malicious scripts!
None
alert(1)
The Billy Hoffman Whitespace Attack <script> ! </script>
The Billy Hoffman Whitespace Attack <script> ! </script> Malicious
Code
The Billy Hoffman Whitespace Attack <script> ! </script> tab
tab tab space space
The Billy Hoffman Whitespace Attack <script> ! </script> 1
1 1 0 0
You cannot detect malicious code.
output.replace(/<script>/, ‘’);
CSS Hacks
Old School
None
Link Visited Link getComputedStyle( getComputedStyle( ) ) === \o\|o|/o/ Pretty
much People Celebrating (or screaming on fire)
Timing Attacks
Security by Inaccuracy
requestAnimationFrame + :visited = ಠ_ಠ
requestAnimationFrame + :visited = ಠ_ಠ
requestAnimationFrame + :visited = ಠ_ಠ
Link Visited Link
Link Visited Link <16ms >60ms Time to render
JSON-P
MORE LIKE JSON-Pretty-Insecure
“I’d really like it if someone could run arbitrary dynamic
scripts on my page” - JSONP Users
You wouldn’t do this.
So don’t do this.
A Leak In The Response
YouProbablyShouldUseCORS.tumblr.com
enable-cors.org
Try to say CROSS SITE! REQUEST FORGERY 5 times fast.
Set-Cookie ‘csrf=0003’
Set-Cookie ‘csrf=0003’
None
None
None
It gets worse.
Contextis White Paper
Cross-Domain Data Snooping via SVG Filters and OCR
None
ಠ_ಠ
We need a new approach.
Content Security Policy
None
Disallow Inline JS, CSS By Default!
Disallow eval By Default!
Disallow Cross Domain JS, CSS, IMG, Fonts
Report Violations!
None
A White List That’s the key!
Good Security Goes Beyond Content Injection
<iframe sandbox>
HTTPS Everywhere
HTTPS Everywhere
HTTPS Only
301 Redirect http
https HSTS
Frame Busting
Disallow as an iFrame X-Frame-Options
It’s “security by default.” At least much closer…
You can rely a little less on being perfect.
it only matters if everyone buys in. But
We need our own slogan.
We need developers to take pride in making secure applications.
Don’t Mess With The Web
ಠ_ಠ
Let’s do something about it together.
Thanks! @SlexAxton Special Thanks To: Mike West * 1000 Adam
Baldwin Contextis MDN