> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://zeyad-abulaban.gitbook.io/notes/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://zeyad-abulaban.gitbook.io/notes/web-penetration-testing/web-vulns/cross-site-tracing-potential.md).
# Cross-Site Tracing Potential
The `TRACE` method, intended for testing and debugging, instructs the web server to reflect the received message back to the client. This method, while apparently harmless, can be successfully leveraged in some scenarios to steal legitimate users’ credentials. This attack technique was discovered by Jeremiah Grossman in 2003, in an attempt to bypass the [**HttpOnly**](https://owasp.org/www-community/HttpOnly) attribute that aims to protect cookies from being accessed by JavaScript. However, the TRACE method can be used to bypass this protection and access the cookie even when this attribute is set.
```bash
$ ncat www.victim.com 80
TRACE / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.victim.com
Random: Header
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Random: Header
...
```
```bash
$ ncat www.victim.com 80
TRACE / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.victim.com
Attack:
```
> The above example works if the response is being reflected in the HTML context.
---
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