Securing Ajax Applications

RSS

Real Simple Syndication (RSS) is a syndication format used to publish frequently updated pages, such as blogs or news feeds. You would think that with all those S's one would mean security. Nope, I guess they missed that one. RSS formats are specified in XML, and RSS delivers its information via an XML file called an RSS feed, web feed, RSS stream, or RSS channel.

These web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a web site. To host a web feed, a web site uses specialized software (such as a content management system) to publish a list (or feed) of content. RSS helps ensure the content is standardized, machine-readable format. The feed can then be downloaded by aggregators or distributors that syndicate content from the feed, or by feed reader programs that allow Internet users to subscribe to feeds and view their content. On web pages, web feeds are identified with words such as subscribe, or with an orange image with the letters RSS, or XML.

RSS helped create the concept of podcasting by supporting enclosures—attachments bundled into the XML and raw data. RSS is still the preferred syndication format for many podcasting applications such as Apple's iTunes. RSS has attracted large groups of supporters who remain satisfied by the specification and its capabilities.

Consuming RSS

RSS is difficult to consume safely. The difficulty starts with the RSS specification, which allows for description elements to contain arbitrary entity-encoded HTML. Although ...