Security vulnerabilities

Attached to Project: Security vulnerabilities
Opened by freetb - 15.02.2024
Last edited by nferrari - 16.02.2024

Description

A vulnerability has been discovered in the student management system, which allows a normal user account to bypass access controls. ANY registered low-level user, with no knowledge or involvement in a class, can globally detach any student involved just by manipulating the UID. Even without tutorship/academic privileges and regardless of tutor access control.

Impact

A malicious attacker could fuzz predictable UID values and remove multiple students, abusing the privesc as a nuisance.

Proof-of-Concept

1) First, we logged in to an actual tutor account where I've added a few students. Next, I take note of the IDs of each student involved.

2) Then, I logged out and just to validate this exploit, I would create a NEW account.

3) This is the vulnerable endpoint:

https://admin.alwaysdata.com/academic/release/<USER_ID>

I replaced the <USER_ID> param with the various IDs I recorded from the tutor account.

4) Visit these URLs on the new account and observe the results.

5) Then, log out and re-login to the tutor account. Visit https://admin.alwaysdata.com/academic/ and confirm poc validity.

Mitigation

Implement proper access controls and role-based permissions to restrict normal users from utilizing global admin/tutor privileges. Conduct a thorough review of the authentication and authorization processes to ensure that no other similar vulnerabilities exist.

POC video: https://file.io/DRmuH2Qk7wZk