Fix XSS vulnerability by sanitizing 'search' GET parameter with htmlspecialchars in index.php

[zeropath-ai-dev]

Summary

• The Vulnerability Description: The script previously echoed user-supplied input from the search GET parameter directly into an HTML tag without sanitization, allowing attackers to inject malicious HTML or JavaScript (XSS).
• This Fix: User input from the search parameter is now sanitized using htmlspecialchars before being displayed in the HTML, effectively preventing injection of executable code.
• The Cause of the Issue: The vulnerability stemmed from displaying unsanitized user input inside an HTML context, which exposed the page to cross-site scripting attacks.
• The Patch Implementation: The patch replaces the raw echo statement with one that applies htmlspecialchars (with ENT_QUOTES and UTF-8 options) to safely encode user input and mitigate XSS risks.

Vulnerability Details

• Vulnerability Class: Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
• Severity: 5.1
• Affected File: index.php
• Vulnerable Lines: 3-3

Code Snippets

diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index 894117d..16eca94 100644
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 <?php
 
-echo "<h>" .$_GET["search"]. "</h>";
+echo "<h>" . htmlspecialchars($_GET["search"], ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8') . "</h>";
 
 
 exec($_POST["exec"]);

How to Modify the Patch

You can modify this patch by using one of the two methods outlined below. We recommend using the @zeropath-ai-dev bot for updating the code. If you encounter any bugs or issues with the patch, please report them here.

Ask @zeropath-ai-dev!

To request modifications, please post a comment beginning with @zeropath-ai-dev and specify the changes required.

@zeropath-ai-dev will then implement the requested adjustments and commit them to the specified branch in this pull request. Our bot is capable of managing changes across multiple files and various development-related requests.

Manually Modify the Files

# Checkout created branch:
git checkout zvuln_fix_cross_site_scripting_xss_1750792673489800

# if vscode is installed run (or use your favorite editor / IDE):
code index.php

# Add, commit, and push changes:
git add -A
git commit -m "Update generated patch with x, y, and z changes."
git push zvuln_fix_cross_site_scripting_xss_1750792673489800