testing-for-broken-access-control

name	testing-for-broken-access-control
description	Systematically testing web applications for broken access control vulnerabilities including privilege escalation, missing function-level checks, and insecure direct object references. Use when working with testing for broken access control.
domain	cybersecurity
tags	["penetration-testing","access-control","authorization","owasp","privilege-escalation","web-security"]
subdomain	web-application-security
version	1.0
author	oyi77
license	Apache-2.0
nist_csf	["PR.PS-01","ID.RA-01","PR.DS-10","DE.CM-01"]

Testing For Broken Access Control

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for testing for broken access control. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "testing for broken access control"

• "Systematically testing web applications for broken access control vulnerabilitie"

• During authorized penetration tests as the primary assessment for OWASP A01:2021 - Broken Access Control

• When evaluating role-based access control (RBAC) implementations across all application endpoints

• For testing multi-tenant applications where users in one organization should not access another's data

• When assessing API endpoints for missing or inconsistent authorization checks

• During security audits where privilege escalation and unauthorized access are primary concerns

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• Authorization: Written penetration testing agreement for the target
• Burp Suite Professional: With Authorize extension for automated access control testing
• Multiple test accounts: Accounts at each role level (admin, manager, user, guest)
• Application role matrix: Documentation of what each role should and should not access
• curl/httpie: For manual endpoint testing with different authentication contexts
• ffuf: For discovering hidden endpoints that may lack access controls

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

def extract_iocs() -> :
     {k: re.findall(v, text)  k, v  IOC_PATTERNS.items()}