Broken Access Control

What is Broken Access Control?

Access control enforces policy such that users cannot act outside of their intended permissions. Failures typically lead to unauthorized information disclosure, modification or destruction of all data, or performing a business function outside of the limits of the user. Common access control vulnerabilities include:

• Bypassing access control checks by modifying the URL, internal application state, or the HTML page, or simply using a custom API attack tool
• Allowing the primary key to be changed to another's users record, permitting viewing or editing someone else's account.
• Elevation of privilege. Acting as a user without being logged in, or acting as an admin when logged in as a user.
• Metadata manipulation, such as replaying or tampering with a JSON Web Token (JWT) access control token or a cookie or hidden field manipulated to elevate privileges, or abusing JWT invalidation
• CORS misconfiguration allows unauthorized API access.
• Force browsing to authenticated pages as an unauthenticated user or to privileged pages as a standard user. Accessing API with missing access controls for POST, PUT and DELETE.

Broken Access Control examples

Example #1: The application uses unverified data

The application uses unverified data in a SQL call that is accessing account information:

        pstmt.setString(1, request.getParameter("acct"));
        ResultSet results = pstmt.executeQuery();
      

An attacker simply modifies the acct parameter in the browser to send whatever account number they want. If not properly verified, the attacker can access any user's account.

        http://example.com/app/accountInfo?acct=notmyacct
      

Example #2: An attacker simply force browses to target URLs

Admin rights are required for access to the admin page.

        http://example.com/app/getappInfo
        http://example.com/app/admin_getappInfo
      

If an unauthenticated user can access either page, it’s a flaw. If a non-admin can access the admin page, this is a flaw.