Mass assignment vulnerability: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:50, 28 February 2013

Revision as of 22:37, 8 March 2013

Line 1:

'''Mass assignment''' is a [[vulnerability (computing)|computer vulnerability]] where an [[active record pattern]] in [[web application]] is abused to modify data items that the user should be not normally allowed to access — for example password, granted permissions or administrator status.

Many [[web application framework]]s offer an [[active record pattern|active record]] feature, where a database record fields can be modified by an automatically generated web API methods. If the framework doesn't prevent that automatically and the application designed doesn't mark specific fields as immutable this way, it's possible to abuse the API call and modify these hidden fields.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/915.html | title=CWE-915: Improperly Controlled Modification of Dynamically-Determined Object Attributes | publisher=NIST | work=Common Weakness Enumeration | accessdate=February 27, 2013}}</ref>.

These vulnerabilities were found in applications written in [[Ruby on Rails]],<ref>{{cite web | url=http://guides.rubyonrails.org/security.html#mass-assignment | title=Mass Assignment | work=Ruby On Rails Security Guide | accessdate=February 27, 2013}}</ref>, [[ASP.NET MVC Framework]],<ref>{{cite web | url=http://ironshay.com/post/Mass-Assignment-Vulnerability-in-ASPNET-MVC.aspx | title=Mass Assignment Vulnerability in ASP.NET MVC | publisher=IronsHay | accessdate=February 27, 2013}}</ref>, [[PHP]] and [[Python (programming language)|Python]].

In 2012 mass assignment on Ruby on Rails was published that allowed injection of unauthorized [[Secure Shell|SSH]] public keys into user accounts at [[GitHub]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.zdnet.com/github-suspends-member-over-mass-assignment-hack-4010025556/ | title=GitHub suspends member over 'mass-assignment' hack | publisher=ZDnet | dateyear=2012 | accessdate=February 27, 2013}}</ref>.

{{Reflist}}