VULN-001-privilege-escalation-user-management.md

Affected Version:

• Invoice System in Laravel: 1.0

Vulnerability Information:

• Vulnerability Type: Broken Access Control + Privilege Escalation
• Severity: CRITICAL
• Status: Unpatched

Vulnerable Endpoint:

• /user (POST/PUT methods)

Vulnerability Description:

The user management flow is exposed without effective authorization controls. The user resource routes can be reached without admin-only middleware, and the controller accepts attacker-controlled role data. This allows any user to create or modify accounts with administrative privileges.

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Proof of Concept (PoC):

Below is a POST request demonstrating arbitrary role assignment during user creation:

POST /user HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

name=attacker&email=attacker@example.com&password=Password123&role=admin

Explanation:

This payload injects the administrative role:

role=admin

The application lacks server-side enforcement to prevent non-admin users from setting the role field, leading to full privilege escalation.

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Impact:

• Privilege Escalation: Attackers can elevate their own accounts to administrator status.
• Account Takeover: Modification of existing users with elevated permissions.
• Access Control: Unauthorized access to all administrative functions.

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Mitigation Recommendations:

1. Enforce Authorization: Protect all /user routes with admin-only middleware.
2. Restrict Input: Remove role from the $fillable array or validate it against a trusted whitelist.
3. Use Policies: Implement Laravel Policies to authorize user creation and updates.