attack-surface.md

Attack Surface Analysis for macrozheng/mall

Attack Surface: Unsecured Admin Panel Access

• Description: The administrative interface of the mall application, intended for managing the e-commerce platform, is accessible without robust authentication or authorization mechanisms. This allows unauthorized users to potentially gain administrative privileges.
• Mall Contribution: As an e-commerce platform, mall inherently includes an admin panel to manage products, users, orders, and system configurations. The security of this panel is crucial for the overall platform security.
• Example: An attacker locates the admin panel login page of a deployed mall instance (e.g., /mall-admin, /admin). If default credentials are used or brute-force attacks are successful due to weak password policies, the attacker gains full administrative control.
• Impact: Complete compromise of the mall platform. Attackers can access and modify sensitive data (customer information, order details, financial data), manipulate product listings and pricing, disrupt services, and potentially plant malware or backdoors.
• Risk Severity: Critical
• Mitigation Strategies:
  • Developers:
    • Implement strong Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all admin accounts.
    • Enforce strong password policies (complexity, rotation) for administrators.
    • Customize the default admin panel URL to a non-predictable path during deployment.
    • Implement IP address whitelisting to restrict admin panel access to trusted networks.
    • Regularly audit admin user accounts and their assigned privileges.
  • Users (Administrators deploying mall):
    • Immediately change all default administrator credentials upon initial deployment.
    • Enable and enforce MFA for all administrator accounts.
    • Restrict admin access to only necessary personnel and networks.
    • Regularly review and update admin account security settings.

Attack Surface: Broken Authentication and Authorization in E-commerce APIs

• Description: Vulnerabilities exist in the API endpoints of mall that handle core e-commerce functionalities (e.g., product browsing, shopping cart, order placement, user account management). These vulnerabilities allow attackers to bypass authentication checks or authorization rules, gaining unauthorized access to data and functions.
• Mall Contribution: mall is designed as a modern e-commerce application heavily reliant on APIs for communication between the frontend and backend. Weaknesses in API security directly expose critical business logic and sensitive user data.
• Example: An attacker identifies an API endpoint in mall used to retrieve order details (e.g., /api/order/{orderId}). By manipulating the orderId parameter, they can access order details of other users without proper authorization checks (IDOR - Insecure Direct Object Reference).
• Impact: Unauthorized access to sensitive user data (personal information, order history, addresses, potentially payment details if exposed via API), ability to manipulate user accounts and orders, potential privilege escalation to perform actions as other users.
• Risk Severity: High
• Mitigation Strategies:
  • Developers:
    • Implement robust authentication mechanisms for all API endpoints (e.g., JWT, OAuth 2.0) and rigorously validate authentication tokens.
    • Enforce strict authorization checks at every API endpoint, based on user roles and permissions, adhering to the principle of least privilege.
    • Avoid exposing internal object IDs directly in API endpoints; use UUIDs or other non-sequential, opaque identifiers.
    • Implement proper input validation and sanitization for all API requests to prevent injection attacks.
    • Conduct thorough security testing of all API endpoints, including penetration testing and vulnerability scanning.
  • Users (Developers extending/modifying mall):
    • Carefully review and test any custom API endpoints added to mall for authentication and authorization vulnerabilities.
    • Ensure that any modifications to the existing API security mechanisms are thoroughly tested and do not introduce new vulnerabilities.

Attack Surface: Business Logic Flaws in Pricing, Discounts, and Promotions

• Description: The business logic within mall that governs product pricing, discount calculations, coupon code validation, and promotional offers contains flaws that can be exploited to gain financial advantages or manipulate the e-commerce system unfairly.
• Mall Contribution: As a fully functional e-commerce platform, mall implements complex logic for pricing, discounts, and promotions. Vulnerabilities in this specific business logic are directly related to mall's core functionality.
• Example: An attacker discovers a flaw in the coupon code redemption process in mall. They find a way to bypass validation checks or apply multiple coupons intended for single use, resulting in significant discounts or even free products at the expense of the platform owner.
• Impact: Direct financial losses for the business due to reduced revenue from manipulated pricing and discounts, potential inventory depletion from heavily discounted or free items, erosion of customer trust, and reputational damage.
• Risk Severity: High
• Mitigation Strategies:
  • Developers:
    • Implement rigorous server-side validation for all pricing calculations, discount applications, and coupon code validations.
    • Thoroughly test all pricing rules, discount logic, and promotional campaigns with a wide range of scenarios, including edge cases and boundary conditions.
    • Use atomic transactions to ensure consistency and prevent race conditions in pricing and discount application processes.
    • Implement detailed logging and monitoring of pricing and discount related activities to detect and respond to suspicious patterns.
  • Users (Administrators managing mall):
    • Carefully configure and test all pricing rules, discount campaigns, and coupon codes in a staging environment before deploying them to production.
    • Regularly monitor sales data and order patterns for unusual discounts or pricing anomalies that might indicate exploitation of business logic flaws.
    • Implement alerts for suspicious discount or coupon usage patterns.

Attack Surface: Insecure Payment Processing Integration

• Description: Vulnerabilities in how mall integrates with payment gateways or handles payment-related data, even if using third-party gateways. This can lead to unauthorized access to payment information or manipulation of payment transactions.
• Mall Contribution: Processing payments is a fundamental requirement for an e-commerce platform like mall. The security of payment processing is paramount for both the business and its customers.
• Example: Even if mall uses a reputable payment gateway, vulnerabilities could arise in how the application handles payment confirmations or redirects. An attacker might intercept or manipulate payment responses, potentially leading to fraudulent order confirmations or denial of service by disrupting the payment flow. Less likely but critically impactful would be vulnerabilities if mall incorrectly attempts to handle or store sensitive payment data directly.
• Impact: Financial fraud, theft of sensitive payment information (though less likely if properly using gateways), significant financial losses, legal and regulatory penalties (especially if PCI DSS compliance is required and violated), and severe reputational damage leading to loss of customer trust.
• Risk Severity: Critical
• Mitigation Strategies:
  • Developers:
    • Absolutely avoid storing sensitive payment information directly within the mall application or its database. Utilize PCI DSS compliant payment gateways and tokenization for handling payment data.
    • Ensure all communication with payment gateways is strictly over HTTPS and implement proper TLS/SSL configurations.
    • Implement robust server-side validation for all payment-related data and responses received from payment gateways.
    • Securely handle and store API keys and credentials for payment gateway integrations, avoiding hardcoding them in the application code.
    • Regularly audit payment processing integration code and configurations for security vulnerabilities.
    • Adhere to PCI DSS guidelines and industry best practices for secure payment processing integration.
  • Users (Administrators deploying and configuring mall):
    • Choose reputable and PCI DSS compliant payment gateways for integration with mall.
    • Carefully configure payment gateway integrations according to best security practices and the gateway provider's recommendations.
    • Regularly review payment processing logs and monitor for any suspicious transactions or anomalies.