Secure password management
class UsersController < ApplicationController
def change_password
@user = User.find(params[:id])
@user.password = params[:password]
@user.password_confirmation = params[:password_confirmation]
if @user.save
redirect_to @user, notice: 'Password was successfully updated.'
else
render :edit
end
end
end
The code above is a controller action in a Ruby on Rails application that allows a user to change their password. The
change_password
method is vulnerable to an insecure direct object reference (IDOR) attack. This vulnerability exists because the application uses the
params[:id]
to look up the user in the database and directly changes the password of that user.
An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a request to the
change_password
method with the
id
parameter set to the ID of another user. The application would then change the password of the other user, even though the attacker is not authenticated as that user.
This vulnerability is due to the application not properly checking if the current user is authorized to perform the password change operation on the target user. The application should ensure that the current user is either the target user or has the necessary administrative privileges to change another user's password.
class UsersController < ApplicationController
before_action :authenticate_user!
before_action :correct_user, only: [:change_password]
def change_password
@user = User.find(params[:id])
if @user.authenticate(params[:old_password])
@user.password = params[:password]
@user.password_confirmation = params[:password_confirmation]
if @user.save
redirect_to @user, notice: 'Password was successfully updated.'
else
render :edit
end
else
flash[:error] = "Old password is incorrect"
render :edit
end
end
private
def correct_user
@user = User.find(params[:id])
redirect_to(root_url) unless current_user?(@user)
end
end
The updated code includes several security enhancements to address the identified vulnerability:
1.
before_action :authenticate_user!
- This line ensures that a user is authenticated before they can access the
change_password
action. This prevents unauthorized users from changing the password of another user.
2.
before_action :correct_user, only: [:change_password]
- This line ensures that only the correct user (the user who is currently logged in) can access the
change_password
action. The
correct_user
method checks if the current user is the same as the user whose ID is specified in the URL parameters. If not, the user is redirected to the root URL.
3.
if @user.authenticate(params[:old_password])
- This line checks if the old password entered by the user is correct before allowing the password to be changed. This prevents an attacker from changing the password if they somehow manage to hijack a user's session.
These changes ensure that only authenticated and authorized users can change their own passwords, and that the old password must be correctly entered before a new password can be set. This significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized password changes.