OWASP Broken Access Control Explained: Definition, Examples, and Best Practices

Understanding Broken Access Control

• 💡 Broken access control is a critical security vulnerability where users gain access to data or functionality beyond their intended permissions, contrary to a zero trust policy.
• 🎯 This occurs by bypassing or manipulating installed security controls, leading to unauthorized actions like acting as an admin without logging in or accessing data without proper authentication.

Origin and Evolution of OWASP Top 10

• 🔑 The concept originated from an educational piece by Dave Wickers and Jeff Williams in 2003, which evolved into the OWASP Top 10.
• 🚀 In 2021, broken access control moved to the number one spot on the OWASP Top 10 list, with 94% of tested applications exhibiting some form of this vulnerability.
• 📈 This highlights its increased prevalence and critical importance in web application security.

Manifestations of Broken Access Control

• ⚠️ Broken access controls can manifest in several ways, including vertical privilege escalation, horizontal privilege escalation, and context-dependent privilege escalation.
• 🧩 These escalations allow users to gain higher privileges or access resources they shouldn't, undermining the security model.

Best Practices to Prevent Broken Access Control

• ✅ A zero trust strategy is recommended, which means denying access by default and only granting it based on rigorous identification and authorization.
• 🛠️ Centralizing the control framework is crucial, avoiding one-off systems and ensuring consistent security across components.
• 💻 Implementing a dev sec ops model and infrastructure as code allows for thorough auditing and testing of access controls to ensure they function as designed.
• 🚫 Obfuscation is not a plan; simply hiding controls does not prevent determined attackers from finding and exploiting them.

Real-World and Fictional Examples

• 🎬 The TV show Mr. Robot provides a fictional example where Elliot compromises a police car's laptop to access a jail's network and unlock cell doors, demonstrating textbook broken access control.
• ⚠️ The common denominator in many security incidents, including escalations and lateral movement, is often compromised privileged accounts and poor directory hygiene, which attack path management aims to address.