Stored XSS Lab Guide – Cookie Theft & Session Hijacking

Learn how real hackers exploit Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities — step by step, from zero experience to full session hijacking.

This hands-on lab guide from AstralGuard Cyber Academy walks you through one of the most dangerous web vulnerabilities in existence. You'll work on a live target application, craft real attack payloads, silently steal session cookies, hijack accounts, and extract hidden data from the DOM — all while understanding exactly why each technique works.

What's inside:

• A plain-English breakdown of how Stored XSS works and why it's rated CRITICAL severity
• How to read application source code to spot vulnerabilities before submitting a single payload
• 6 progressive attack phases — from HTML injection confirmation to full account takeover
• Real cookie exfiltration payloads with every component explained line by line
• Why some payloads fail and how to bypass those restrictions using event handlers
• Complete defense analysis — how developers fix each layer of the vulnerability
• Lab exercises, discussion questions, and a quick-reference cheat sheet

Who it's for: Complete beginners in cybersecurity, aspiring penetration testers, web developers who want to understand how their apps get attacked, and CTF players.

No coding experience required. Every command is shown exactly as you type it.