CAPEC Definitions

    CAPEC Definitions / CAPEC-87

    CAPEC-87: Forceful Browsing

    An attacker employs forceful browsing (direct URL entry) to access portions of a website that are otherwise unreachable. Usually, a front controller or similar design pattern is employed to protect access to portions of a web application. Forceful browsing enables an attacker to access information, perform privileged operations and otherwise reach sections of the web application that have been improperly protected.

    Severity:High
    Possibility:High

    Extended Description

    No Extended Description.

    Mitigations

    Authenticate request to every resource. In addition, every page or resource must ensure that the request it is handling has been made in an authorized context.

    Forceful browsing can also be made difficult to a large extent by not hard-coding names of application pages or resources. This way, the attacker cannot figure out, from the application alone, the resources available from the present context.

    Relationships with other CAPECs

    CAPEC-115: Authentication Bypass

    Prerequisites

    The forcibly browseable pages or accessible resources must be discoverable and improperly protected.

    Related Weaknesses

    CWE-425: Direct Request ('Forced Browsing')

    CWE-285: Improper Authorization

    CWE-693: Protection Mechanism Failure