In cross site scripting (XSS) attacks malicious scripts are inserted in the web files for accessing the information or degrade the performance of the website. Now day’s hackers are prominently using the scripts for malfunction scripting. In this paper a study has been presented for the prevention and detection of XSS attacks. This study provides a detail exploration of the methods used for detection, their impact and problem identification. It provides a systematic review for the exploration of the good methods in the direction of better detection of XSS attacks. Based on the analysis some future suggestions have been suggested.