Attack Surface: Dependency Definition Manipulation
- Description: Attackers can manipulate the definition of dependencies, leading to the injection of malicious or unintended components into the application.
- Koin Contribution: If Koin modules are loaded or configured based on external, untrusted input, attackers can control module definitions and inject malicious dependencies through Koin's module loading mechanism. This is a direct consequence of how Koin allows module configuration.
- Example: An application uses Koin and loads modules based on filenames specified in a configuration file fetched from a remote server. An attacker compromises the server and modifies the configuration file to point to a malicious module file. Koin, following the configuration, loads this malicious module, replacing legitimate services.
- Impact: Code execution, data breaches, privilege escalation, denial of service.
- Risk Severity: High to Critical
- Mitigation Strategies:
- Avoid Dynamic Module Loading from Untrusted Sources: Prefer compile-time module definitions embedded within the application code. If dynamic loading is absolutely necessary, implement extreme caution.
- Input Validation and Sanitization (for Module Paths): If module paths are derived from external input, rigorously validate and sanitize these paths to prevent path traversal or injection of malicious module locations.
- Secure Configuration Management: If external configuration is used to define modules, ensure the configuration source is highly secure, using strong authentication, authorization, encryption, and integrity checks.
- Principle of Least Privilege: Run the application with minimal necessary permissions to limit the potential damage if a malicious module is loaded.
Attack Surface: Configuration Injection Flaws
- Description: Attackers inject malicious configurations into Koin, altering application behavior or gaining unauthorized access specifically by manipulating Koin's configuration loading process.
- Koin Contribution: If Koin configurations (parameters, properties) are loaded from external, untrusted sources, attackers can inject malicious configurations that Koin will then use to configure dependencies and application behavior. This is directly related to Koin's configuration management features.
- Example: An application uses Koin and retrieves database connection strings as Koin parameters from a remote configuration service. If this service is compromised, an attacker can inject a malicious database connection string. Koin will then inject this malicious string into services that depend on it, potentially leading to data exfiltration to an attacker-controlled database.
- Impact: Data breaches, unauthorized access, service disruption, code execution (in scenarios where configuration influences code paths).
- Risk Severity: High to Critical
- Mitigation Strategies:
- Secure Configuration Sources: Use only trusted and highly secure sources for Koin configurations.
- Authentication and Authorization for Configuration: Implement strong authentication and authorization for accessing and modifying Koin configurations.
- Encryption and Integrity Checks for Configuration Data: Encrypt sensitive configuration data both in transit and at rest. Use integrity checks (signatures, checksums) to ensure configuration data has not been tampered with.
- Configuration Validation and Sanitization: Validate and sanitize configuration parameters loaded by Koin to ensure they conform to expected formats and ranges, preventing injection of unexpected or malicious values.