Privilege Escalation Through Code Logic
Overview
Privilege escalation occurs when users can elevate their own access levels through:
- Mass assignment: User profile update endpoint accepts
roleorisAdminfields - Parameter tampering: Changing
user_idto another user's ID - API parameter forgery: Sending
{"role": "admin"}in user update request
Remediation
- Explicitly whitelist allowed fields in user update operations
- Never accept role, permission, or admin fields from user-controlled input
- Verify that any elevation action is performed by a sufficiently privileged user