Golang Broken Access Control Guide: Examples and Prevention

Data protection is critical in the IT industry due to the ease of accessing information online, necessitating regulations like GDPR to safeguard sensitive data. Access control, also known as authorization, is vital for ensuring that only authorized individuals access certain information, typically following authentication. There are three main types of access control: discretionary, managed, and role-based, each with varying levels of restriction and flexibility. In Golang, broken access control can manifest through vulnerabilities such as client-side caching, insecure direct object reference (IDOR), broken object level authorization (BOLA), and CORS misconfiguration, all of which can be mitigated through careful configuration and the use of security practices like unique identifiers and proper cache control. Addressing these vulnerabilities is essential to protect user data from malicious actors, with tools like StackHawk providing support for monitoring and enhancing application security.