🔒 Identifying IDOR Vulnerabilities: A Practical Example

Hello again from V-Spot!

Today, we dive into a common web application vulnerability: Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR). At its core, it’s an oversight that could grant unauthorized access to resources by merely manipulating input.

📜 Code Snippet: Vulnerable Web App

from flask import Flask, request

app = Flask(__name__)

users = {
    '1': {'name': 'Alice', 'balance': 1000},
    '2': {'name': 'Bob', 'balance': 500}
}

@app.route('/get_balance', methods=['GET'])
def get_balance():
    user_id = request.args.get('user_id')
    return users[user_id]['balance']

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run()

🚩 Vulnerability: The /get_balance endpoint fetches a user’s balance using the user_id from the URL query. There’s no authentication or verification in place, meaning Bob could easily retrieve Alice’s balance by altering the user_id.

💡 Mitigation:

1. Implement an authentication mechanism.
2. Ensure the logged-in user has appropriate permissions to access the requested resource.

Understanding and spotting vulnerabilities like IDOR is vital in ensuring robust web application security.

As always, double-check your endpoints, and remember that security is a journey, not a destination. Want more insights and tutorials on tackling vulnerabilities? Head over to our website!

Stay secure,
The V-Spot Team