OWASP Java Encoder Project

Contextual Output Encoding is a computer programming technique necessary to stop Cross-Site Scripting. This project is a Java 1.5+ simple-to-use drop-in high-performance encoder class with little baggage.

Start using the OWASP Java Encoders

You can download a JAR from Maven Central.

JSP tags and EL functions are available in the encoder-jsp, also available in Central.

The jars are also available in Maven:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.owasp.encoder</groupId>
    <artifactId>encoder</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.3</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.owasp.encoder</groupId>
    <artifactId>encoder-jsp</artifactId>
    <version>1.2.3</version>
</dependency>

Quick Overview

The OWASP Java Encoder library is intended for quick contextual encoding with very little overhead, either in performance or usage. To get started, simply add the encoder-1.2.3.jar, import org.owasp.encoder.Encode and start using.

Example usage:

    PrintWriter out = ....;
    out.println("<textarea>"+Encode.forHtml(userData)+"</textarea>");

Please look at the javadoc for Encode to see the variety of contexts for which you can encode.

Happy Encoding!

News

2020-11-08 - 1.2.3 Release

The team is happy to announce that version 1.2.3 has been released!

• Update to make the manifest OSGi-compliant (#39).
• Update to support ESAPI 2.2 and later (#37).

2018-09-14 - 1.2.2 Release

The team is happy to announce that version 1.2.2 has been released!

• This is a minor release fixing documentation and licensing issues.

2017-02-19 - 1.2.1 Release

The team is happy to announce that version 1.2.1 has been released!

• The CDATA Encoder was modified so that it does not emit intermediate characters between adjacent CDATA sections.
• The documentation on gh-pages has been improved.

2015-04-12 - 1.2 Release on GitHub

OWASP Java Encoder has been moved to GitHub. Version 1.2 was also released!

2014-03-31 - Documentation updated

Please visit https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Java_Encoder_Project#tab=Use_the_Java_Encoder_Project to see detailed documentation and examples on each API use!

2014-01-30 - Version 1.1.1 released

We're happy to announce that version 1.1.1 has been released. Along with a important bug fix, we added ESAPI integration to replace the legacy ESAPI encoders with the OWASP Java Encoder.

2013-02-14 - Version 1.1 released

We're happy to announce that version 1.1 has been released. Along with a few minor encoding enhancements, we improved performance, and added a JSP tag and function library.