The Web Application Hacker’s Handbook Discovering and Exploiting Security Flaws

(continued)

Chapter 8 

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Attacking Access Controls  233

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HACK STEPS (continued)

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Roles defined at the application server layer are often coarsely defined

and may be incomplete.

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Where application components run using low-privileged operating sys-

tem accounts, these are still typically able to read many kinds of poten-

tially sensitive data within the host file system. Any vulnerabilities

granting arbitrary file access may still be usefully exploited.

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Vulnerabilities within the application server software itself will typically

enable you to defeat all access controls implemented within the applica-