Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
125 lines (94 loc) · 7.72 KB

mitigations.md

File metadata and controls

125 lines (94 loc) · 7.72 KB

Mitigation Strategies Analysis for flarum/flarum

Mitigation Strategy: Careful Extension Selection and Management (Flarum-Centric)

Description:

  1. Research on Extiverse/Community: Before installing, research extensions on Extiverse (if listed) and the Flarum community forum. Look for active maintenance, positive feedback, and a reasonable number of downloads.
  2. Permission Review (Admin Panel): Immediately after installation, use Flarum's admin panel to review and restrict the permissions granted to the extension. Grant only the minimum necessary permissions.
  3. Regular Updates (Admin Panel/Composer): Use the Flarum admin panel or Composer (composer update) to check for and apply extension updates regularly (e.g., weekly). Prioritize security updates.
  4. Periodic Audits (Admin Panel): Regularly (e.g., quarterly) review all installed extensions in the Flarum admin panel. Remove any that are unused, unmaintained, or have known security issues.
  5. Staging Environment (with Flarum): Before installing new extensions or updates on the production Flarum instance, install and test them in a staging environment that mirrors the production Flarum setup.

Threats Mitigated:

  • Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) (High Severity): From vulnerable extensions.
  • Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) (High Severity): From vulnerable extensions.
  • SQL Injection (SQLi) (Critical Severity): From vulnerable extensions.
  • Insecure Direct Object References (IDOR) (High Severity): From vulnerable extensions.
  • Remote Code Execution (RCE) (Critical Severity): From vulnerable extensions.
  • Data Breaches (High Severity): From various extension vulnerabilities.

Impact:

  • Significantly reduces the risk of all listed threats originating from extensions.

Currently Implemented (Hypothetical):

  • Permissions are reviewed for new extensions.
  • Monthly update checks.

Missing Implementation (Hypothetical):

  • No formal pre-installation research process.
  • No periodic extension audits.
  • Inconsistent use of staging environment.

Mitigation Strategy: Prompt Flarum Core Updates (Composer)

Description:

  1. Subscribe to Announcements: Subscribe to Flarum release announcements.
  2. Regular Checks: Regularly check the Flarum website/GitHub.
  3. Update via Composer: Use Composer (composer update) to update Flarum to the latest stable version, following official instructions.
  4. Backup (Before Update): Create a full backup (files and database) before any update.
  5. Testing (After Update): Thoroughly test the forum after updating.
  6. Staging Environment (with Flarum): Apply updates to a staging Flarum instance first, test, then deploy to production.

Threats Mitigated:

  • All vulnerabilities disclosed in Flarum core updates (Severity varies, can be Critical): XSS, CSRF, SQLi, RCE, etc., in the core.

Impact:

  • Eliminates known core vulnerabilities.

Currently Implemented (Hypothetical):

  • Updates applied within a week of release.
  • Backups taken before updates.

Missing Implementation (Hypothetical):

  • No staging environment used for updates.

Mitigation Strategy: Secure Flarum Configuration (config.php)

Description:

  1. config.php Review: Carefully review the config.php file. Ensure debug is false in production. Verify database credentials are strong and unique. Check all settings.
  2. Database Credentials (Strong & Unique): Use a strong, unique password for the Flarum database user within the config.php file. Do not use the database root user.
  3. Admin Access Restriction (Consider .htaccess or server config if no other options): While ideally done at the server level, if absolutely necessary and no other options are available, consider using .htaccess (Apache) to restrict access to the /admin route. This is less robust than server-level restrictions.

Threats Mitigated:

  • Information Disclosure (Medium to High Severity): Exposing debug info.
  • Database Compromise (Critical Severity): Weak database credentials in config.php.
  • Brute-Force Attacks (Medium Severity): Against the admin panel (limited mitigation with .htaccess).

Impact:

  • Reduces risk of information disclosure and database compromise.
  • Provides limited mitigation against admin panel brute-force (if .htaccess is used as a last resort).

Currently Implemented (Hypothetical):

  • debug is false in production.
  • Strong database credentials in config.php.

Missing Implementation (Hypothetical):

  • No .htaccess restrictions on /admin (ideally, this would be handled at the server level).

Mitigation Strategy: Secure API Usage (Flarum-Centric)

Description:

  1. API Key Generation (Flarum/Secure Random): Use Flarum's built-in methods or a secure random number generator to create strong API keys.
  2. API Key Storage (Environment Variables/Secrets Management): Store API keys outside of the Flarum codebase (e.g., environment variables). Never commit them to version control.
  3. API Key Rotation (Manual/Automated): Regularly rotate API keys.
  4. Input Validation & Output Encoding (Extension Development): If developing custom extensions that interact with the Flarum API, rigorously validate all input received from the API and properly encode output using Flarum's built-in functions.

Threats Mitigated:

  • Unauthorized API Access (High Severity): Weak/compromised API keys.
  • Data Breaches (High Severity): Via unauthorized API access.
  • Injection Attacks (XSS, etc.) (High Severity): Through API interactions in custom extensions.

Impact:

  • Reduces risk of unauthorized API access, data breaches, and injection attacks via the API.

Currently Implemented (Hypothetical):

  • API keys are used.

Missing Implementation (Hypothetical):

  • No API key rotation.
  • No thorough review of input validation/output encoding in custom API interactions.

Mitigation Strategy: Secure Discussion and Post Content Handling (Flarum-Centric)

Description:

  1. Extension Review (Content-Related): If using extensions that modify content display (custom BBCode, Markdown), carefully review their code for XSS vulnerabilities, focusing on input handling and sanitization.
  2. Regular Expression Review (Extensions): If extensions use regular expressions for parsing, review them for ReDoS vulnerabilities.
  3. Moderator Training (Content Awareness): Train moderators to recognize and remove malicious content (scripts, links).
  4. Input Sanitization (Extension Development): If developing custom extensions, always sanitize user input using Flarum's built-in functions (e.g., s9e\TextFormatter) before displaying or storing it.

Threats Mitigated:

  • Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) (High Severity): In user posts.
  • Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) (Medium Severity): From extensions.
  • Malicious Content (Medium Severity): Posted by users.

Impact:

  • Reduces risk of XSS, ReDoS, and malicious content exposure.

Currently Implemented (Hypothetical):

  • Flarum's built-in sanitization is used.
  • Moderators have general awareness.

Missing Implementation (Hypothetical):

  • No systematic extension code review (content-related).
  • No regular expression audits.
  • No formal moderator training on malicious content.