I’ve just pushed the latest update of the most recent book in the Securing PHP ebook series – The Usual Suspects – and included an entire chapter covering cross-site scripting:

Next we come to something that’s probably a bit more widely known but often misunderstood, especially when it comes to the power that it offers to the attacker. Part of the confusion comes from the name of the attack. When you think about the attack method an XSS vulnerabilities allows, the only thing “cross site” about it is that it can possibly come in as a link from another site. Other than that, a cross-site scripting vulnerability can be more closely associated with injection. In fact, the main reason a site might have a cross-site scripting issue is because of improper output escaping.

This new chapter has loads of information about the different types of XSS issues, the different contexts it can happen in and plenty of code and configuration examples of how to prevent them. If you haven’t picked up a copy of it yet, there’s no time like the present!

Don’t forget about the first book in the Securing PHP series too! Core Concepts is a great introduction to security terminology, methods and principles that can help you lay a good foundation for more secure applications.