Vulnerability Assessment on Cross-site scripting attack in a simulated E-commerce platform using BeEF and XSStrike

The risk of cyberattacks increases along with the quantity of e-commerce websites. One of the frequent attacks that target and threaten said websites is cross-site scripting (XSS) attack. They take use of flaws in online applications to insert harmful code into a website, which can be exploited to steal confidential data or impair the performance of the website. XSS attacks can have significant effects on end users as well as the companies in charge of maintaining the websites. Websites can be edited or defaced, users can be tricked into giving up their information and login credentials, and websites or applications can even be taken over. This study is conducted to gauge the susceptibility of e-commerce websites to XSS attacks, enumerate as many vulnerabilities as our testing will allow us to find, and glean recommendations from the results to help improve the security of such websites. Additionally, this study also aims to demonstrate the severity of XSS attacks and their effects on the end-users and organizations affected by such attacks. Penetration testing using the freely available open-source XSS tools BeEF and XSStrike are used to identify potential vulnerabilities in the two websites created and provided by the researchers’ structure, features, and functionality.