Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
57 lines (48 loc) · 7.12 KB

attack-surface.md

File metadata and controls

57 lines (48 loc) · 7.12 KB

Attack Surface Analysis for nopsolutions/nopcommerce

Attack Surface: Third-Party Plugin Vulnerabilities

  • Description: Vulnerabilities within installed plugins, often developed by external parties.
  • nopCommerce Contribution: The plugin architecture and marketplace are core to nopCommerce's extensibility. This reliance on third-party code for many features inherently creates this attack surface. The platform's design encourages the use of plugins.
  • Example: A poorly coded "Payment Gateway" plugin stores credit card details in plain text in the database, making it vulnerable to SQL injection attacks.
  • Impact: Compromise of the entire store, data theft (including sensitive customer and payment data), unauthorized actions, potential server compromise.
  • Risk Severity: Critical to High (depending on the plugin's functionality and the vulnerability).
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Rigorous Plugin Selection: Choose only essential plugins from reputable developers with a proven track record of security and updates. Prioritize plugins with minimal permissions.
    • Code Review (Critical Plugins): If feasible, conduct a thorough code review of critical plugins (e.g., payment gateways, shipping providers) before installation, focusing on security best practices.
    • Mandatory Updates: Implement a strict policy of immediately updating plugins to the latest versions upon release. Automate this process where possible.
    • Vulnerability Scanning: Utilize vulnerability scanners that specifically target nopCommerce and its plugins to identify known issues.
    • Least Privilege: Ensure plugins are granted only the absolute minimum necessary permissions within the nopCommerce system. Review plugin permissions regularly.
    • Disable/Remove Unused Plugins: Actively remove or disable any plugins that are not absolutely essential to the store's operation.

Attack Surface: Misconfigured ACL (Access Control List)

  • Description: Incorrectly configured user roles and permissions, leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data or functionality.
  • nopCommerce Contribution: nopCommerce's ACL system is a core feature for managing user access. Its complexity and granularity, while powerful, increase the risk of misconfiguration. The platform's reliance on this system for security makes proper configuration crucial.
  • Example: A marketing user is accidentally granted permissions to access and modify order data, including customer payment information, due to an incorrectly configured role.
  • Impact: Data breaches (customer data, order details, financial information), unauthorized modification of data, potential for privilege escalation.
  • Risk Severity: High to Critical (depending on the extent of the misconfiguration).
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Strict Least Privilege: Adhere rigorously to the principle of least privilege. Grant users only the absolute minimum permissions required for their specific job functions.
    • Regular ACL Audits: Conduct frequent and thorough audits of the ACL configuration. Review user roles, permissions, and group memberships.
    • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Review: Ensure the RBAC implementation is well-defined, documented, and regularly reviewed for accuracy and appropriateness.
    • Comprehensive Testing: Thoroughly test access controls using different user accounts and roles to verify that permissions are enforced correctly. Include negative testing (attempting unauthorized actions).
    • Documentation and Training: Maintain clear documentation of the ACL configuration and provide training to administrators on how to manage it securely.

Attack Surface: Weak or Default Credentials

  • Description: Failure to change default administrator credentials or using weak, easily guessable passwords for administrative accounts.
  • nopCommerce Contribution: nopCommerce, like many applications, ships with default administrator credentials. While the platform strongly recommends changing these, the responsibility ultimately lies with the administrator. The presence of these default credentials is a direct contribution.
  • Example: An attacker gains full administrative access to the nopCommerce backend by using the well-known default username and password.
  • Impact: Complete system compromise, data theft, defacement, potential server compromise.
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Immediate Default Credential Change: The very first action after installing nopCommerce must be to change the default administrator credentials to strong, unique values.
    • Enforced Strong Password Policies: Implement and enforce strong password policies for all user accounts, especially administrative accounts. This includes minimum length, complexity requirements, and regular password changes.
    • Mandatory Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Require MFA for all administrator accounts. This adds a crucial layer of security even if passwords are compromised. (May require a plugin).
    • Account Lockout Policies: Implement account lockout policies to prevent brute-force attacks against user accounts.

Attack Surface: Misconfigured External Authentication

  • Description: Vulnerabilities arising from improperly configured integrations with external authentication providers (e.g., Google, Facebook, OpenID Connect).
    • nopCommerce Contribution: nopCommerce's built-in support for various external authentication methods introduces this attack surface. The security relies heavily on the correct configuration of these integrations within nopCommerce.
    • Example: An improperly configured OpenID Connect integration fails to validate the id_token properly, allowing an attacker to forge tokens and impersonate any user.
    • Impact: Account takeover, unauthorized access to user data and potentially administrative functions.
    • Risk Severity: High
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Strict Configuration Adherence: Meticulously follow the official nopCommerce documentation and the provider's documentation when configuring external authentication. Pay extreme attention to security-related settings.
      • Thorough Token Validation: Ensure that all authentication tokens received from external providers are rigorously validated according to the relevant specifications (e.g., JWT validation for OpenID Connect).
      • Up-to-Date Libraries: Keep all libraries related to external authentication providers updated to their latest versions to patch any security vulnerabilities.
      • Comprehensive Testing: Regularly and thoroughly test the entire authentication flow for each external provider, including edge cases and error handling, to ensure it functions securely.