Comprehensive XSS course

Ready to start?

Labs

Combine XSS & social engineering to “help” other players

Exploit persistent XSS for some in-game currency

Real software vulns

Steal cookies from a learning platform

Find & exploit a vuln in a Git service

What’s inside?

Introduction

We address burning questions about XSS (“is it even relevant today?”) and strip it down to its core to show you what the absolute simplest XSS vulnerability looks like.

Reflected XSS: Real-World Case Study

You’ll exploit the first real-world vulnerability of this course — a reflected XSS vulnerability in Moodle version 3.10.0 to steal a cookie! We also look at the vulnerable source code and the patch that finally fixes this vulnerability.

Reflected XSS: Practice

Attackers achieve the greatest impact with XSS attacks when they’re combined with carefully crafted social engineering tactics, due to XSS attacks being client-side.

Introducing... Cross-Site Dragons, a browser game where you wield your XSS power fortified with some social engineering to log out unsuspecting users and delete their accounts!

Persistent XSS: Introduction

What happens when your XSS attacks are persisted, and thus amplified without you having to put in the extra effort?

We examine the simplest persistent XSS vulnerability in a faux-Twitter lab.

Persistent XSS: Real-World Case Study

In this real-world case study of the persistent XSS vulnerability in Gitea version 1.12.0, you are now tasked with finding the vulnerability and creating your own Proof of Concept exploit for it!

Persistent XSS: Practice

Watch out, the admins of Cross-Site Dragons have finally fixed the vulnerabilities you masterfully exploited back in Reflected XSS: Practice!

But we bet you can find even better vulnerabilities and “convince” some unwitting users’ browsers to transfer some in-game currency to you!

Types of XSS

What is self-XSS? What is DOM-based XSS? Why is the terminology surrounding XSS confusing at times? In this section, we explain all this in concise terms.

How to prevent it

Now that we know how to attack, we learn how to defend: how to encode user input, and how to set secure CSP policies.

Conclusion

Congratulations 🎉 and a recap of this course!

When I learned cybersecurity, I was fed false promises to make me an expert in one course for £40. It doesn’t work.

The end result: I could name-drop 20 more vulns, how they work, maybe 1–2 more automated tools.

Here’s the problem: the moment I loaded a client’s website to do penetration testing, I was slapped with “no automated tools please” — so that’s out. I came to realize that a shallow understanding with no substance of mastery ≠ real cybersec work.

Why not learn the right way, the first time, efficiently? That’s why I created Dev Aviary to help students like you get to real pentesting, real bug bounties. Faster, too. Because you skip the time other courses waste.

When you learn with Dev Aviary, I will personally support you through our course catalogue (it’s small now, but it’s growing!). I hope you enjoy learning with us :)

Nina, co-founder

Questions?

Before you start

You’ll need some basic HTML & JavaScript knowledge. Plus a general tech background, meaning a little scripting/programming experience and a general understanding of the web.

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FAQs.

Kali machine

What are the specs for my Kali Linux virtual machine?

Internet is disabled, CPU is limited to 1.5 units and RAM is limited to 2G. But other than that, you have access to your machine 24/7.

Will my data (my files, scripts etc) be persisted in my Kali machine?

Store all your scripts & data in ~/nest as this folder (and nothing else!) will be persisted across restarts & updates.

All your servers are too far from me and my machine is laggy. Can you set one up near me?

Of course! Let us know where you’d like your lab to be hosted and we’d happily create a new server near it.

We’re also already working on making servers in the US available.

How long do I get access to the machine?

Subscribers get access for as long as you’re subscribed. If you’ve purchased a course, then you always have access to it.

Can I request additional tools on my machine?

Of course you can! Please contact us with your requests (see our help centre when logged in).

Are there any minimum requirements to run this?

Since there’s an entire machine in our app, make sure your screen is big enough (1920x1680)!

Account

Can I change the location of my machine & labs any time?

Send us your request via the help center when logged in. This will be automated soon!

What’s the refund policy?

We give refunds if requested within 1 month (i.e. for the current month of subscription, or courses purchased less than a month ago).

Courses

Are there prerequisites to your courses?

As long as you have a general tech background (programmer, IT, computer science student etc), we don’t assume any prior cybersecurity knowledge!

Why do you require a general tech background for your courses?

Being able to break / exploit something comes from knowing it as well as you know your palm. We leave the prerequisite tech background to other people’s capable hands, so that we can focus on teaching you how to break the tech.