Triage

Triage: Finding Validation Gate

Use BEFORE moving any FIND from Vulns/Research/ to Vulns/Completed/.

One wrong answer = keep the finding in Research. Move on to next test class.

THE 7-QUESTION GATE

Ask in order. One NO = STOP for this finding.

Q1: Can an attacker use this RIGHT NOW, step by step?

Complete this template:

Setup:   I need [own account / another user's ID / no account / internal access]
Request: [exact HTTP method, URL, headers, body -- copy-paste ready]
Result:  I can [read / modify / delete / execute] [exact data or action]
Impact:  The real-world consequence is [specific impact]

If you CANNOT write the Request line as a real reproducing command -> keep in Research.

Q2: Is the impact within engagement scope?

• Does it affect an in-scope asset?
• Does the impact match the severity level being claimed?
• Not a third-party service the target merely uses?

Q3: Is the root cause in an in-scope asset?

• Production asset (not staging/dev unless in scope)
• Not out-of-scope subsidiary or third-party

Q4: Does it require privileged access that an attacker cannot realistically obtain?

• "Admin can do X" = not a finding
• "Non-admin can do X that only admin should do" = valid
• Pre-auth or low-auth is highest value

Q5: Is this already known or documented?

• Check Vuln-index.md - not already listed?
• Check Deadends.md - not already investigated and closed?
• Not design-documented behaviour?

Q6: Can you prove impact beyond "technically possible"?

• XSS -> show actual session theft or action execution, not just alert(1)
• SSRF -> confirm OOB callback (DNS/HTTP), not just URL echo in error message
• SQLi -> show actual data extracted from a real table
• IDOR -> show actual other-user data in response body, not just 200 status

Q7: Not on the Never-Promote list?

Never promote to Completed without a chain:

Self-XSS only (no CSRF trigger)
Open redirect alone (no OAuth/ATO chain)
CORS wildcard without credentialed exfil PoC
SSRF DNS-only (no internal service access)
Rate limit without demonstrated impact
Version banner alone
Missing headers alone (no impact PoC)

Pre-Severity Gate (run before labelling CRITICAL or HIGH)

1. Have you validated the FULL chain to attacker-attainable impact, or only one primitive?
2. What does the attacker walk away with in one concrete sentence?
3. Have you reproduced the full chain end-to-end at least twice?
4. Is there a validation step (signature check, audience check, MFA) still gating the chain?

A "primitive confirmed" != exploitable. Downgrade until the gate is bypassed.

Decision