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attack-surface.md

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Attack Surface Analysis for alibaba/sentinel

Attack Surface: Unauthenticated/Weakly Authenticated Dashboard Access

  • Description: The Sentinel Dashboard is accessible without authentication or with weak default credentials.
  • Sentinel Contribution: Sentinel provides a web-based dashboard for management, which, if not properly secured, becomes a direct entry point.
  • Example: A developer deploys Sentinel Dashboard using default credentials (sentinel:sentinel). An attacker discovers the publicly accessible dashboard and logs in using these default credentials.
  • Impact: Full control over Sentinel configuration, including flow control rules, circuit breakers, and system parameters. This can lead to application disruption, data manipulation, or denial of service.
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Change Default Credentials Immediately: Upon deployment, change the default username and password for the Sentinel Dashboard to strong, unique credentials.
    • Implement Strong Authentication: Enable robust authentication mechanisms like password policies (complexity, rotation), multi-factor authentication (MFA), or integration with existing identity providers (LDAP, Active Directory, OAuth 2.0).
    • Restrict Network Access: Limit access to the Sentinel Dashboard to authorized networks or IP ranges using firewall rules or network segmentation.
    • Regular Security Audits: Periodically review and audit dashboard access controls and authentication configurations.

Attack Surface: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) in Dashboard

  • Description: Vulnerabilities in the Sentinel Dashboard allow attackers to inject malicious scripts that execute in users' browsers.
  • Sentinel Contribution: The dashboard handles user inputs for rule configuration, descriptions, and other settings. If these inputs are not properly sanitized, XSS vulnerabilities can arise within the Sentinel dashboard application itself.
  • Example: An attacker injects a malicious JavaScript payload into a Sentinel rule name field. When an administrator views this rule in the dashboard, the script executes, potentially stealing session cookies or performing actions on behalf of the administrator.
  • Impact: Account compromise, session hijacking, defacement of the dashboard, and potential further attacks on the application through manipulated Sentinel configurations.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Input Sanitization and Output Encoding: Implement robust input sanitization and output encoding techniques in the dashboard codebase to prevent injection of malicious scripts.
    • Content Security Policy (CSP): Implement a strict Content Security Policy to limit the sources from which the browser can load resources, mitigating the impact of XSS attacks.
    • Regular Security Scanning: Perform regular security scans of the dashboard application to identify and remediate XSS vulnerabilities.
    • Security Awareness Training: Educate developers and administrators about XSS vulnerabilities and secure coding practices.

Attack Surface: Command Injection in Dashboard (If Applicable)

  • Description: Vulnerabilities in the Sentinel Dashboard allow attackers to inject and execute arbitrary system commands on the server.
  • Sentinel Contribution: If the dashboard includes features that involve executing system commands based on user input (e.g., diagnostic tools, configuration settings), command injection vulnerabilities can be introduced within the Sentinel dashboard application. This is less common in standard Sentinel dashboard but possible in custom extensions or misconfigurations.
  • Example: A dashboard feature allows administrators to ping a hostname entered in a form. An attacker enters ; rm -rf / in the hostname field. If input sanitization is missing, the server executes the command, potentially deleting critical system files.
  • Impact: Full server compromise, data breach, denial of service, and complete control over the underlying system.
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Avoid System Command Execution from User Input: Minimize or eliminate features that require executing system commands based on user input within the dashboard.
    • Strict Input Validation and Sanitization: If system command execution is unavoidable, rigorously validate and sanitize all user inputs to prevent command injection. Use whitelisting and escape special characters.
    • Principle of Least Privilege: Run the dashboard application with the minimum necessary privileges to limit the impact of command injection vulnerabilities.
    • Security Audits and Penetration Testing: Regularly audit and penetration test the dashboard to identify and remediate command injection vulnerabilities.

Attack Surface: Dependency Vulnerabilities in Dashboard

  • Description: The Sentinel Dashboard relies on third-party libraries and frameworks that may contain known security vulnerabilities.
  • Sentinel Contribution: Like any web application, the dashboard depends on external components. Outdated or vulnerable dependencies within the Sentinel dashboard application itself introduce attack vectors.
  • Example: The dashboard uses an outdated version of a JavaScript library with a known XSS vulnerability. Attackers exploit this vulnerability to compromise the dashboard.
  • Impact: Vulnerability exploitation leading to XSS, CSRF, or other attacks, depending on the nature of the dependency vulnerability within the dashboard.
  • Risk Severity: High to Critical (depending on the severity of the dependency vulnerability)
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Dependency Management and Updates: Use a dependency management tool (e.g., Maven, npm, Yarn) and regularly update dependencies of the Sentinel dashboard to the latest stable versions, including security patches.
    • Vulnerability Scanning: Integrate dependency vulnerability scanning tools into the development and deployment pipeline to automatically detect and alert on vulnerable dependencies within the dashboard.
    • Software Composition Analysis (SCA): Employ SCA tools to gain visibility into the software bill of materials of the dashboard and manage open-source risks.