Company
Date Published
Author
Ofer Hakimi
Word count
794
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Broken Object-Level Authorization (BOLA) is a critical security vulnerability categorized among the OWASP TOP-10 for APIs, allowing attackers to access unauthorized data by manipulating object IDs. The blog post uses Bollywood-inspired scenarios to illustrate BOLA's risks, featuring characters like a salesperson, a tutor, and an administrator who exploit API vulnerabilities for personal gain, jeopardizing privacy and company reputation. BOLA occurs when applications fail to verify user authorization for accessing specific objects, leading to potential data breaches and legal issues. To prevent such attacks, developers should implement Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), use unique object identifiers, ensure strong authentication and authorization, and conduct security testing with tools like Pynt, thus safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining trust.