Security vulnerabilities

Attached to Project: Security vulnerabilities
Opened by lostsam - 30.05.2024
Last edited by cbay - 05.06.2024

Severity: High

Vulnerability Description:
The website allows users to create accounts without verifying their email addresses. This practice poses significant security and usability risks.

Impact:

Spam and Fake Accounts:

Malicious users can create multiple fake accounts, leading to spam and abuse of the platform.
Automated scripts (bots) can exploit this vulnerability to flood the system with fake accounts, overwhelming resources and degrading performance.
Account Security:

Unauthorized users can create accounts using someone else's email address, potentially leading to privacy breaches and unauthorized access to personal information.
Genuine users might be unable to access their accounts if their email addresses are misused by others.

Communication Failures:

Users may not receive important notifications, updates, or password reset instructions, leading to poor user experience and support issues.

Reputation and Trust:

The lack of basic security measures can lead to loss of trust among users and damage the website's reputation.
Users might perceive the platform as insecure and unreliable, leading to reduced user retention and engagement.
Steps to Reproduce:
Navigate to the account creation page.
Enter any email address (including ones that do not belong to the user) and complete the registration process.
Observe that the account is created and accessible without any email verification step.

Recommended Mitigation:

Implement Email Verification:

During registration, send a confirmation email to the provided email address containing a unique verification link.
Require users to click on the verification link to activate their accounts.
Use CAPTCHA:

Incorporate CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) during the registration process to prevent automated bots from creating accounts.

Rate Limiting:

Implement rate limiting on the account creation endpoint to prevent mass account creation from the same IP address within a short period.

Audit Existing Accounts:

Review existing accounts for potential fake or unauthorized accounts and take appropriate actions, such as sending verification requests or disabling suspect accounts.

References:
OWASP Authentication Cheat Sheet: OWASP Authentication Cheat Sheet
NIST Digital Identity Guidelines: NIST SP 800-63B