Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
54 lines (44 loc) · 4.95 KB

threat-modeling.md

File metadata and controls

54 lines (44 loc) · 4.95 KB

Threat Model Analysis for rails-api/active_model_serializers

Threat: Sensitive Data Exposure via Default Attribute Inclusion

1. Threat: Sensitive Data Exposure via Default Attribute Inclusion

  • Description: An attacker sends a standard request to an API endpoint. The serializer, due to implicit attribute inclusion (not explicitly defining attributes), returns all model attributes, including sensitive ones like password_digest, api_key, is_admin, internal IDs, or other private data not intended for public consumption.
  • Impact:
    • Data Breach: Leakage of sensitive user data, potentially leading to identity theft, financial fraud, or account compromise.
    • Privilege Escalation: Exposure of is_admin or similar flags could allow an attacker to identify administrative accounts.
    • Loss of Confidentiality: Exposure of internal business logic or proprietary data.
  • Affected Component: The core serialization process when attributes are not explicitly defined in the serializer class. This affects the ActiveModel::Serializer base class and any subclasses that inherit this behavior. Specifically, the implicit attribute selection mechanism.
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Explicit attributes Declaration: Always explicitly list the attributes to be serialized using attributes :id, :name, :public_field, .... Never rely on the default behavior.
    • Code Reviews: Mandate code reviews that specifically check serializers for explicit attribute definitions.
    • Automated Testing: Include tests that verify the JSON output of serializers, ensuring only expected attributes are present.
    • Security Linters: Use security-focused linters that can detect implicit attribute inclusion in serializers.

Threat: Over-Exposure of Associated Data

2. Threat: Over-Exposure of Associated Data

  • Description: An attacker requests a resource, and the serializer includes deeply nested associations (e.g., User includes Posts, which includes Comments, which includes Commenters). The attacker receives a large JSON payload containing sensitive data from related models that they should not have access to.
  • Impact:
    • Data Breach: Leakage of sensitive data from associated records.
    • Performance Degradation/DoS: Excessive data retrieval can slow down the API or even lead to a denial-of-service.
    • Information Disclosure: Exposure of the relationship graph, revealing connections between users or data that should be private.
  • Affected Component: The association handling within serializers (has_many, belongs_to, has_one). The way these associations are included and how their own serializers are configured.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Selective Association Inclusion: Only include associations that are absolutely necessary for the specific API endpoint and user role.
    • Separate Serializers: Create different serializers for different contexts (e.g., PublicPostSerializer vs. AdminPostSerializer).
    • Pagination: Always paginate associated records to limit the amount of data returned.
    • include Option Control: Carefully manage the include option in controllers to prevent overriding serializer settings and causing unintended data exposure.
    • Depth Limiting: Consider implementing a mechanism to limit the depth of nested associations.

Threat: Denial of Service via Deeply Nested Associations

3. Threat: Denial of Service via Deeply Nested Associations

  • Description: An attacker crafts a request that triggers the serialization of deeply nested associations. This causes a large number of database queries (N+1 problem), potentially overwhelming the database server and leading to a denial-of-service.
  • Impact:
    • Service Unavailability: The API becomes unresponsive, affecting legitimate users.
    • Resource Exhaustion: Database server resources (CPU, memory, connections) are exhausted.
  • Affected Component: The association handling within serializers (has_many, belongs_to, has_one), particularly when nested deeply and without proper eager loading or pagination.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Limit Association Depth: Avoid deeply nested associations in serializers.
    • Eager Loading: Use includes, preload, or eager_load in controllers to efficiently load associated data.
    • Pagination: Paginate associated records to limit the amount of data retrieved.
    • Rate Limiting: Implement rate limiting on API endpoints to prevent abuse.
    • Performance Monitoring: Monitor database query performance and identify potential bottlenecks.