Shopping for an admin account via path traversal

GitLab security researchers identified a critical security vulnerability involving REST API calls that exposed the potential for a path traversal attack, which could result in unauthorized access and privilege escalation on gitlab.com. The vulnerability was demonstrated using GitLab's Customers Portal, where user-controlled parameters in API requests could be manipulated to traverse and access unintended API endpoints. This flaw allowed attackers to inject arbitrary attributes, potentially promoting regular accounts to admin status with minimal effort and cost. The problem was swiftly mitigated by enforcing numerical constraints on the vulnerable parameter and implementing additional security measures to prevent similar attacks. This incident underscores the importance of rigorous testing and secure coding practices in applications that rely on backend services via API calls, highlighting the role of security research in maintaining the integrity of GitLab's products and services.

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