# Strategies and Challenges in Detecting XSS Vulnerabilities Using an Innovative Cookie Collector
## 2 Cookies and the Rising Threat of XSS Vulnerabilities: A Literature Review
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{p{14.2 pt} p{142.3 pt} p{142.3 pt} p{142.3 pt}} \hline \hline
**Ref** & **Results** & **Methods Used** & **Limitations** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{[37]} & The paper presents a method to stop cookie abuse by implementing one-time password and challenge–response authentication. & A one-time password has been used to identify the valid owner of the cookie. Challenge–response authentication has been used to verify the person’s identity. & Not defined. \\ \cline{1-1} \cline{2-3}  & The article introduces “Dynamic Cookie Rewriting” to prevent XSS attacks by rendering cookies useless. It has been implemented in a web proxy. & Dynamic Cookies Rewriting technique. Implementation in a web proxy. & \multirow{2}{*}{Not defined.} \\ \cline{1-1} \cline{2-3}  & The proposal has provided a mechanized non-interference test for the HttpOnly and Secure cookie flags. The article introduces Cookiext, a browser extension for client-side protection against session hijacking. & Techniques to optimize cookie attacks in web applications have been discussed. & \multirow{2}{*}{Not defined.} \\ \cline{1-1} \cline{2-3}  & “Rotten cookie” is a novel cookie hijacking attack that can turn off cookie flags that are protected by TLS. Some web browsers can accept cookies without any cookie flag. & Mechanized proof of noninterference for HttpOnly and Secure cookie flags. Development of CookiExt browser extension for client-side protection against session hijacking. & \multirow{2}{*}{Cookies not marked HttpOnly do not provide any protection against XSS attacks.} \\ \cline{1-1} \cline{2-3}  & The paper has analyzed the severe consequences of cross-site scripting attacks and focused on the theft of cookies, passwords, and personal credentials. & \multirow{2}{*}{Exploiting a vulnerability in HTTP software. Removing cookie flags to obtain private cookies.} & HTTP vulnerabilities can truncate messages, but major browsers ignore uninterpreted response headers. \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: _Cont._As shown in [43], a system called CookiePicker has been developed to automatically validate the usability of a website's cookies and set cookie permissions on behalf of users. The purpose of the system is to maximize the benefits of cookies while minimizing privacy and security risks. However, it has been implemented as a Firefox browser extension and has shown promising results in experiments [44]. Another proposal has analyzed a security device that inspects outgoing data packet traffic from an application server, extracts the cookie from the data packet, encrypts it using a secure key, and sends it to the client device for storage [23]. On the other hand, a data reception and query system processes the events received through the HTTP protocol and associates them with tokens. The system can store and analyze the events received based on configurable metadata [44, 45]. Our research emphasizes the need for a cookie collector to detect and mitigate XSS vulnerabilities in cookies using a web browser prototype. Our proposal includes a detailed analysis of the attribute **\"Related to cookie collector or own web browser\"**, as shown in Table 1. Our research aims to position itself within the context of existing studies that have already explored or presented findings on the vulnerabilities of cookies against XSS attacks.