Musings on why I started and ended our bug bounty program. https://coreysnipes.com/why-i-ended-our-bug-bounty-program.html #BugBounty #infosec

Business Logic Flaw: How an Empty Team Name Can Trap Users Forever
This bug bounty analysis reveals a critical **Business Logic Vulnerability** stemming from missing input validation that enables permanent user account entrapment. The vulnerability exploits inadequate team name validation in GraphQL mutations, allowing attackers to set team names to empty space or whitespace characters. The exploitation chain involves: (1) An attacker with owner privileges changes the team name to empty space via the `updateTeam` GraphQL mutation, (2) When legitimate users attempt to leave the team using the `leaveTeam` function, they encounter an impossible confirmation step requiring them to type the team name for verification, (3) Since the team name appears empty/blank in the UI, users cannot complete the confirmation process and become permanently trapped within the organization. This creates a **Denial of Service** attack against user account mobility and violates fundamental user rights to control their digital presence. The root cause is insufficient input validation that fails to check for empty, whitespace-only, or minimal-length team names, combined with brittle business logic that depends entirely on team name visibility without implementing fallback mechanisms. The vulnerability has severe business implications including customer experience damage, increased support costs, reputation damage, and potential GDPR/CCPA compliance violations. Mitigation requires implementing comprehensive input validation with minimum length requirements (at least 2 characters), storing original team names for recovery purposes, providing alternative confirmation methods (creation date, member count), and implementing admin override capabilities. Organizations must also redesign destructive operations with multiple escape hatches and test business logic edge cases including empty values and special characters. The vulnerability demonstrates how simple input validation failures can create catastrophic user experience issues and permanent security states that cannot be resolved without manual intervention. #infosec #BugBounty #BusinessLogic #InputValidation #UserEnttrapment
https://medium.com/@aminouji23/business-logic-flaw-how-an-empty-team-name-can-trap-users-forever-fb9152acb990?source=rss------bug_bounty-5

The Hidden Cost of API Security Misconfigurations (and How to Avoid Them)
This article comprehensively covers **OWASP API8:2023 Security Misconfiguration** vulnerabilities, which encompass multiple attack vectors stemming from improper API security controls. Security misconfigurations represent a class of vulnerabilities where insecure default settings, incomplete configuration of security controls, or exposure of unnecessary features create exploitable attack surfaces. The vulnerability manifests through various attack vectors including default credentials, verbose error messaging that reveals system information, enabled debugging modes, misconfigured cloud storage, weak TLS/SSL configurations, missing security headers, overly permissive CORS policies, unpatched software, and exposed internal endpoints. A practical exploitation example is demonstrated using the C{api}tal vulnerable application where an attacker discovered an exposed Redis instance running on port 6379 with no authentication. The exploitation involved simple reconnaissance using `nmap` to identify running services, followed by connecting to the unsecured Redis instance using `redis-cli` and extracting sensitive data including a security flag through basic commands like `keys *` and `get flag`. The impact spans multiple dimensions: unauthorized data access, potential system compromise through exposed sensitive information, MITM attacks via weak encryption, cross-site data leaks through permissive CORS, and reconnaissance opportunities provided by verbose error messages. The root causes include failure to implement secure defaults, lack of proper access controls, inadequate input validation, missing security headers, improper error handling, and insufficient security testing during deployment. Mitigation requires implementing secure default configurations by changing all default credentials, hardening environments through repeatable processes, enforcing least privilege principles, minimizing information leakage through generic error handling, establishing patch management policies, deploying automated security audits and monitoring, integrating security validation into CI/CD pipelines, implementing strong authentication/authorization mechanisms like OAuth 2.0 and MFA, and maintaining comprehensive API documentation. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it represents a category of weaknesses rather than a single flaw, making comprehensive security controls essential rather than point solutions. Organizations must prioritize robust quality assurance and security testing throughout the development lifecycle to prevent these easily preventable but often critical security gaps. #infosec #BugBounty #APISecurity #SecurityMisconfiguration #Cybersecurity
https://medium.com/@jungoskillet/security-misconfigurations-f132701315fd?source=rss------bug_bounty-5

SSH Isn't Just a Service: How Outdated Daemons Create Unseen Backdoors
This bug bounty write-up reveals a critical infrastructure vulnerability involving an outdated SSH daemon (OpenSSH 8.0 from 2019) configured with weak cryptographic standards that create significant security risks. The vulnerability type is a service misconfiguration combined with deprecated cryptography, where the SSH daemon supports obsolete key types (ssh-rsa, ecdsa-sha2-nistp256), broken Message Authentication Codes (hmac-sha1, hmac-sha1-etm@openssh.com), and vulnerable CBC-mode ciphers (aes128-cbc, aes256-cbc). The bug works through network reconnaissance using nmap for port scanning, followed by banner grabbing to identify the exact SSH version, and cryptographic auditing with ssh-audit tool to reveal the full scope of weak configurations. The exploitation involves leveraging these deprecated standards which are susceptible to known attacks like POODLE and SWEET32, potentially allowing Man-in-the-Middle attackers to decrypt session traffic and steal credentials. The impact is severe - full infrastructure compromise through direct administrative SSH access that bypasses all web application security controls, WAFs, and client-side protections. This creates immediate high-privilege access vectors for reading source code, dumping databases, and establishing persistent backdoors. The mitigation strategy involves upgrading to the latest OpenSSH version, implementing strong cryptographic standards (disabling deprecated key types and weak MACs), and conducting regular security audits of administrative services. This finding demonstrates how proper network reconnaissance and service auditing can uncover critical infrastructure vulnerabilities that are more valuable than traditional web application bugs. #infosec #BugBounty #Cybersecurity
https://medium.com/@bishopx_09/ssh-isnt-just-a-service-how-outdated-daemons-create-unseen-backdoors-58ac0f47eaa9?source=rss------bug_bounty-5

Behind the Scenes of a CTF Exploit Walkthrough: Master the Art of Real-World Pentesting
This educational article provides an in-depth analysis of the real-world methodologies used by professional penetration testers and CTF competitors to systematically exploit systems and escalate privileges. While not describing a specific vulnerability, the content covers common attack vectors including Remote Code Execution (RCE), SQL Injection (SQLi), and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) that are frequently found in real-world applications. The vulnerability context relates to the structured approach to identifying and exploiting security flaws in web applications and network services through systematic reconnaissance, enumeration, and exploitation techniques. The article emphasizes the attacker's mindset and methodology rather than just tool usage, covering the complete penetration testing lifecycle from initial foothold to privilege escalation. The exploitation strategies discussed include systematic enumeration of services, identification of misconfigurations, manual exploitation techniques, and the importance of understanding both web application vulnerabilities and system-level security flaws. The impact of the discussed vulnerabilities can range from unauthorized access to complete system compromise, depending on the specific flaw and exploitation path. The mitigation strategy involves implementing proper security controls, regular security assessments, secure coding practices, and understanding common attack vectors to build resilient systems. This content serves as valuable guidance for both aspiring bug bounty hunters and security professionals seeking to understand real-world exploitation methodologies and develop practical penetration testing skills. #infosec #BugBounty #Cybersecurity
https://medium.com/@verylazytech/behind-the-scenes-of-a-ctf-exploit-walkthrough-master-the-art-of-real-world-pentesting-e0283d9f185e?source=rss------bug_bounty-5