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CISA Advisory: Preventing Web Application Access Control Abuse

Posted on July 29, 2023 by Dissent

Release Date: July 27, 2023
Alert Code: AA23-208A

SUMMARY

The Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) are releasing this joint Cybersecurity Advisory to warn vendors, designers, and developers of web applications and organizations using web applications about insecure direct object reference (IDOR) vulnerabilities. IDOR vulnerabilities are access control vulnerabilities enabling malicious actors to modify or delete data or access sensitive data by issuing requests to a website or a web application programming interface (API) specifying the user identifier of other, valid users. These requests succeed where there is a failure to perform adequate authentication and authorization checks.

These vulnerabilities are frequently exploited by malicious actors in data breach incidents because they are common, hard to prevent outside the development process, and can be abused at scale. IDOR vulnerabilities have resulted in the compromise of personal, financial, and health information of millions of users and consumers.

ACSC, CISA, and NSA strongly encourage vendors, designers, developers, and end-user organizations to implement the recommendations found within the Mitigations section of this advisory—including the following—to reduce prevalence of IDOR flaws and protect sensitive data in their systems.

  • Vendors, designers, and developers of web application frameworks and web applications: Implement secure-by-design and -default principles and ensure software performs authentication and authorization checks for every request that modifies, deletes, and accesses sensitive data.
    • Use automated tools for code review to identify and remediate IDOR and other vulnerabilities.
    • Use indirect reference maps, ensuring that IDs, names, and keys are not exposed in URLs. Replace them with cryptographically strong, random values—specifically use a universally unique identifier (UUID) or a globally unique identifier (GUID).
    • Exercise due diligence when selecting third-party libraries or frameworks to incorporate into your application and keep all third-party frameworks and dependencies up to date.
  • All end-user organizations, including organizations with software-as-a-service (SaaS) models:
    • Use due diligence when selecting web applications. Follow best practices for supply chain risk management and only source from reputable vendors.
    • Apply software patches for web applications as soon as possible.
  • End-user organizations deploying on-premises software, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), or private cloud models:
    • Review the available authentication and authorization checks in web applications that enable modification of data, deletion of data, or access to sensitive data.
    • Conduct regular, proactive vulnerability scanning and penetration testing to help ensure internet-facing web applications and network boundaries are secure.

Download the PDF version of this report at:

AA23-208A Preventing Web Application Access Control Abuse   or

Read the full report on CISA.gov.

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