What is Broken Access Control?
Broken access control is a security vulnerability in which an unauthorized user gains access to restricted resources they shouldn’t be entitled to. This leads to the unverified user modifying or deleting sensitive data without the owner’s knowledge.
A simple example of broken access control is when a regular website user takes actions on the site that only administrators can. This could easily mean anyone can add any new user, giving them the power to breach the site and openly access the entire site data.
Consequences of a Broken Access Control
Since broken access control is one of the most critical security vulnerabilities, its consequences are also severe. Let’s dive into some of these consequences now.
- Financial Fraud
- Operational Challenges
- Loss of Credibility
One of the biggest consequences of broken access control is financial fraud. Once the attacker gains access to the victim’s application, they can effortlessly carry out unauthorized transactions or data theft, causing major financial repercussions.
Broken access control affects a company significantly, which leaves shockwaves across the organization. It means that when a hacker gains access to a website and makes changes across the platform, it severely disrupts their service operations and efficiency.
A critical cyberattack vulnerability like broken access control doesn’t just affect the business’s internal processes, but also their external affairs. For instance, once a company’s partners and customers learn about such an attack, they might lose trust in them.
Types of Broken Access Control Vulnerabilities
Here we have some of the commonly known types of broken access control attacks that you should be aware of.
- Insecure Direct Object References (IDOR)
- Elevated User Privilege
- URL Manipulation
This is a type of broken access control in which an application accidentally exposes a reference to the site’s internal interfaces, allowing attackers to easily access and manipulate personal information.
Violation of the least privilege is also a common broken access control attack vulnerability type. In this, the attacker first gains access to a lower-level account and then escalates the privileges of that account to gain unauthorized access to higher levels with sensitive data.
As the name suggests, in this attack, the hacker alters the URL of a website intending to gain unauthorized access to personal resources. This attack usually occurs when the site owner doesn’t have proper URL validations access control in place to prevent such vulnerabilities.
Essential Strategies to Prevent Broken Access Control Attacks
If you want to protect your website from the broken access control vulnerability, make sure you follow our below-mentioned strategies.
- Access Validation
- Leverage Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
- Conduct Regular Security Patches
The first and perhaps the most important strategy to prevent a broken access control attack is access validation. This ensures that if an attacker tries to gain access to an application or its database, the system must decline it because of an unverified user.
Another effective prevention strategy is integrated multi-factor authentication to ensure an added layer of security. MFA demands users to provide two or more verifications before accessing a website, which is a great way to keep attackers from breaching your defenses.
Make sure your website and its key components are being updated regularly with the latest security patches in place. This ensures that your website is fully secured from any possible breach or any security vulnerability that may occur.