attack-surface.md

Attack Surface Analysis for z-song/laravel-admin

Attack Surface: Authentication and Authorization Bypass (via laravel-admin's System)

• Description: Attackers gain unauthorized access to administrative functionalities or data by exploiting weaknesses specifically within laravel-admin's permission and role management system.
• laravel-admin Contribution: laravel-admin provides the entire authentication and authorization layer for the admin panel. Misconfiguration or bugs within this layer are the direct cause of this attack surface.
• Example: An attacker discovers a flaw in laravel-admin's permission checking logic that allows them to bypass role restrictions and access a restricted controller action. Or, a misconfigured role grants unintended access.
• Impact: Complete system compromise, data breaches, unauthorized data modification, denial of service.
• Risk Severity: Critical
• Mitigation Strategies:
  • Strict RBAC (within laravel-admin): Meticulously define roles and permissions within laravel-admin's interface, adhering to the principle of least privilege. Each role should have the absolute minimum necessary permissions.
  • Regular Permission Audits (of laravel-admin Config): Frequently review and audit the roles, permissions, and user assignments as configured within laravel-admin. This is not a general Laravel audit, but specific to the laravel-admin configuration.
  • Disable Unused laravel-admin Roles/Permissions: Disable any default or unused roles and permissions provided by laravel-admin.
  • Test laravel-admin's Permission System: Thoroughly test the permission system as implemented by laravel-admin to ensure it functions correctly and that there are no bypasses due to laravel-admin's logic.
  • MFA for laravel-admin Users: Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all accounts accessing the laravel-admin panel.

Attack Surface: Insecure File Uploads (via laravel-admin's Features)

• Description: Attackers upload malicious files through laravel-admin's file upload functionalities, exploiting weaknesses in laravel-admin's handling of those uploads.
• laravel-admin Contribution: laravel-admin provides the file upload interface and processing logic. Vulnerabilities here are directly attributable to laravel-admin.
• Example: An attacker uploads a PHP shell script using laravel-admin's file manager, bypassing laravel-admin's (insufficient) file type validation, and then executes the script.
• Impact: Remote code execution, complete system compromise, data breaches, website defacement.
• Risk Severity: Critical
• Mitigation Strategies:
  • Strict File Type Whitelisting (in laravel-admin Config): Configure laravel-admin's file upload settings to allow only specific, absolutely necessary file types. Never allow executable files. This configuration is done within laravel-admin.
  • File Content Validation (for laravel-admin Uploads): Implement server-side validation that checks the actual content of uploaded files, going beyond simple extension checks. This validation should be integrated with laravel-admin's upload process.
  • Rename Files (Handled by laravel-admin): Ensure laravel-admin is configured to rename uploaded files to random, unpredictable names. This prevents attackers from guessing file paths.
  • Secure Storage (Configured for laravel-admin): Configure laravel-admin to store uploaded files in a secure location, ideally outside the web root, and with appropriate access controls.
  • File Size Limits (Set in laravel-admin): Configure laravel-admin's file upload settings to enforce reasonable file size limits.

Attack Surface: Mass Assignment Vulnerabilities (Exploiting laravel-admin Forms)

• Description: Attackers manipulate form data submitted through laravel-admin's forms to modify database fields they should not have access to, bypassing laravel-admin's intended protections.
• laravel-admin Contribution: laravel-admin generates the forms and handles the data submission. If it doesn't properly respect Laravel's model security, it creates this vulnerability.
• Example: An attacker adds a hidden field is_admin=1 to a user profile update form generated by laravel-admin, and laravel-admin fails to prevent this field from being mass-assigned to the model.
• Impact: Unauthorized data modification, privilege escalation, data breaches.
• Risk Severity: High
• Mitigation Strategies:
  • Strict $fillable or $guarded (in Models): In every Eloquent model used with laravel-admin, explicitly define $fillable (preferred) or $guarded. This is standard Laravel practice, but critical in the context of laravel-admin.
  • Verify laravel-admin Form Handling: Specifically test that laravel-admin's form builders correctly respect the $fillable and $guarded properties of your models. Don't assume; verify.
  • Avoid request()->all() (in Custom laravel-admin Logic): If you write any custom code that interacts with laravel-admin forms or data, never use request()->all() or similar methods to directly populate model attributes.

Attack Surface: Vulnerable laravel-admin Extensions and Custom Actions

• Description: Third-party extensions installed within laravel-admin or custom actions created within laravel-admin introduce vulnerabilities.
• laravel-admin Contribution: laravel-admin provides the extension and custom action mechanisms, making it the platform where these vulnerabilities exist.
• Example: An attacker exploits a SQL injection vulnerability in a poorly coded custom action added to laravel-admin to generate reports.
• Impact: Varies depending on the vulnerability, but can range from data breaches to complete system compromise.
• Risk Severity: High (Potentially Critical, depending on the extension/action)
• Mitigation Strategies:
  • Vet laravel-admin Extensions: Thoroughly review the code and reputation of any third-party extensions before installing them into laravel-admin.
  • Secure Coding for laravel-admin Actions: Follow secure coding practices when developing custom actions for laravel-admin. Validate all input, use parameterized queries, and avoid direct execution of user-provided data within the context of the laravel-admin action.
  • Code Reviews (of laravel-admin Extensions/Actions): Conduct code reviews of all custom actions and extensions specifically within the laravel-admin environment.
  • Update laravel-admin Extensions: Keep all extensions installed in laravel-admin updated to their latest versions.