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Security controls absence - Monitoring

Need​

Implementation of robust monitoring and alerting mechanisms

Context​

  • Usage of PHP 7.0 for server-side scripting and web development
  • Usage of Illuminate\Http\Request for handling HTTP requests in Laravel
  • Usage of the User model in the App\Models namespace

Description​

Non compliant code​

<?php

namespace App\\Http\\Controllers;

use Illuminate\\Http\\Request;
use App\\Models\\User;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function updateUser(Request $request, $id)
    {
        $user = User::find($id);
        $user->name = $request->input('name');
        $user->email = $request->input('email');
        $user->role = $request->input('role');
        $user->save();

        return response()->json(['message' => 'User updated successfully.']);
    }
}

In the above code, we have a UserController with a method updateUser that updates a user's details, including their role. This method retrieves the user by their ID, updates the fields with the data received in the request, and then saves the changes to the database.

The vulnerability lies in the absence of any monitoring or alert mechanism that would notify the system administrators or security personnel about this critical change.

This means that if an attacker were to gain access to this function, they could potentially change the roles of users, including elevating their own privileges, without the system administrators being alerted to this change. This could lead to unauthorized access and modification of resources, and potentially a full system compromise.

The absence of monitoring and alerting mechanisms makes it difficult to detect and respond to such security incidents in a timely manner.

Steps​

  • Introduce a logging mechanism to track changes made to the user's data.
  • Use Laravel's built-in logging services to log the changes made in the updateUser function.
  • Log the old and new values of the user's data for comparison and auditing purposes.
  • Create alerts or notifications that will be triggered when critical changes are made, such as role changes.
  • Consider using Laravel's event handling to trigger these alerts or notifications.
  • Ensure that these logs, alerts, and notifications are secure and cannot be tampered with.

Compliant code​

<?php

namespace App\\Http\\Controllers;

use Illuminate\\Http\\Request;
use App\\Models\\User;
use Illuminate\\Support\\Facades\\Log;

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function updateUser(Request $request, $id)
    {
        $user = User::find($id);
        $oldData = $user->toArray();

        $user->name = $request->input('name');
        $user->email = $request->input('email');
        $user->role = $request->input('role');
        $user->save();

        $newData = $user->toArray();

        Log::info('User data updated', ['old_data' => $oldData, 'new_data' => $newData]);

        if($oldData['role'] != $newData['role']){
            // Trigger alert or notification for role change
            // This is a placeholder, replace with actual alert/notification code
            Log::alert('User role changed', ['user_id' => $id, 'old_role' => $oldData['role'], 'new_role' => $newData['role']]);
        }

        return response()->json(['message' => 'User updated successfully.']);
    }
}

The updated code introduces a logging mechanism to track changes made to the user's data.

When the updateUser function is called, the old data of the user is stored in the $oldData variable. After the user's data is updated, the new data is stored in the $newData variable.

The Log::info function is then used to log the old and new data of the user. This log entry will provide a clear record of what changes were made to the user's data.

In addition, an alert is triggered if the user's role is changed. This is done by comparing the 'role' field in the $oldData and $newData arrays. If the roles are not the same, the Log::alert function is used to create an alert log entry. This entry includes the user's ID and the old and new roles.

This logging and alerting mechanism provides a way to monitor critical changes in the system, such as role changes. It also provides a way to audit changes made to user data.

Please note that the alerting code is a placeholder and should be replaced with actual code to send alerts or notifications as required by your application.

References​

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