Anti cross-site scripting (XSS) filter for Java web apps

public class XSSFilter implements Filter {

    @Override
    public void init(FilterConfig filterConfig) throws ServletException {
    }

    @Override
    public void destroy() {
    }

    @Override
    public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response, FilterChain chain)
        throws IOException, ServletException {
        chain.doFilter(new XSSRequestWrapper((HttpServletRequest) request), response);
    }

}

The wrapper overrides the getParameterValues(), getParameter() and getHeader() methods to execute the filtering before returning the desired field to the caller. The actual XSS checking and striping is performed in the stripXSS() private method.

import java.util.regex.Pattern;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequestWrapper;

public class XSSRequestWrapper extends HttpServletRequestWrapper {

    public XSSRequestWrapper(HttpServletRequest servletRequest) {
        super(servletRequest);
    }

    @Override
    public String[] getParameterValues(String parameter) {
        String[] values = super.getParameterValues(parameter);

        if (values == null) {
            return null;
        }

        int count = values.length;
        String[] encodedValues = new String[count];
        for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
            encodedValues[i] = stripXSS(values[i]);
        }

        return encodedValues;
    }

    @Override
    public String getParameter(String parameter) {
        String value = super.getParameter(parameter);

        return stripXSS(value);
    }

    @Override
    public String getHeader(String name) {
        String value = super.getHeader(name);
        return stripXSS(value);
    }

    private String stripXSS(String value) {
        if (value != null) {
            // NOTE: It's highly recommended to use the ESAPI library and uncomment the following line to
            // avoid encoded attacks.
            // value = ESAPI.encoder().canonicalize(value);

            // Avoid null characters
            value = value.replaceAll("", "");

            // Avoid anything between script tags
            Pattern scriptPattern = Pattern.compile("<script>(.*?)</script>", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
            value = scriptPattern.matcher(value).replaceAll("");

            // Avoid anything in a src='...' type of expression
            scriptPattern = Pattern.compile("src[\r\n]*=[\r\n]*\\\'(.*?)\\\'", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE | Pattern.MULTILINE | Pattern.DOTALL);
            value = scriptPattern.matcher(value).replaceAll("");

            scriptPattern = Pattern.compile("src[\r\n]*=[\r\n]*\\\"(.*?)\\\"", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE | Pattern.MULTILINE | Pattern.DOTALL);
            value = scriptPattern.matcher(value).replaceAll("");

            // Remove any lonesome </script> tag
            scriptPattern = Pattern.compile("</script>", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
            value = scriptPattern.matcher(value).replaceAll("");

            // Remove any lonesome <script ...> tag
            scriptPattern = Pattern.compile("<script(.*?)>", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE | Pattern.MULTILINE | Pattern.DOTALL);
            value = scriptPattern.matcher(value).replaceAll("");

            // Avoid eval(...) expressions
            scriptPattern = Pattern.compile("eval\\((.*?)\\)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE | Pattern.MULTILINE | Pattern.DOTALL);
            value = scriptPattern.matcher(value).replaceAll("");

            // Avoid expression(...) expressions
            scriptPattern = Pattern.compile("expression\\((.*?)\\)", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE | Pattern.MULTILINE | Pattern.DOTALL);
            value = scriptPattern.matcher(value).replaceAll("");

            // Avoid javascript:... expressions
            scriptPattern = Pattern.compile("javascript:", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
            value = scriptPattern.matcher(value).replaceAll("");

            // Avoid vbscript:... expressions
            scriptPattern = Pattern.compile("vbscript:", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
            value = scriptPattern.matcher(value).replaceAll("");

            // Avoid onload= expressions
            scriptPattern = Pattern.compile("onload(.*?)=", Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE | Pattern.MULTILINE | Pattern.DOTALL);
            value = scriptPattern.matcher(value).replaceAll("");
        }
        return value;
    }
}

Notice the comment about the ESAPI library, I strongly recommend you check it out and try to include it in your projects.

If you want to dig deeper on the topic I suggest you check out the OWASP page about XSS and RSnake’s XSS (Cross Site Scripting) Cheat Sheet.

Reference: Stronger anti cross-site scripting (XSS) filter for Java web apps from our JCG partner Ricardo Zuasti at the Ricardo Zuasti’s blog blog.