Article about XSS vulnerability resulted in NYT’s executing the code

A ReadWriteWeb piece detailed several cross-site scripting (XSS) flaws in the McAfee Web site, caused the New York Times, who picked up the story, to redirect its readers to the ReadWriteWeb site .

XSS vulnerability (definition), a type of Web flaw that can be targeted to steal data in the article displayed on McAfee Web site caused the NYT website readers to be redirected to ReadWriteWeb site. Instead of displaying the sample code, the New York Times executed it as part of the page.

According to Lance James of Secure Science the NYT flaw could allow anyone whose stories get syndicated with the site (or anyone who hacks a story that gets syndicated) to abuse the security hole.

The ReadWriteWeb story's author, Lidija Davis, has changed the story displayed on the site to use a screen shot instead of text, but the NYT is still showing the original story when with the security problem.