GHSA-qc5p-3mg5-9fh8
Avo: Broken Access Control Through Unauthorized Execution of Arbitrary Action Classes Across Resources
Packages
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
### Summary
A critical Broken Access Control vulnerability was identified in the `ActionsController` of the Avo framework (v3.x). Due to insecure action lookup logic, an authenticated user can execute any Action class (descendants of `Avo::BaseAction`) on any resource, even if the action is not registered for that specific resource. This leads to Privilege Escalation and unauthorized data manipulation across the entire application.
### Details
The vulnerability exists in the `action_class` method within `app/controllers/avo/actions_controller.rb`.
#### Vulnerable Code
```ruby
def action_class
# It searches through ALL descendants of BaseAction without resource validation
Avo::BaseAction.descendants.find do |action|
action.to_s == params[:action_id]
end
end
```
The controller identifies the action class to execute solely based on the `params[:action_id]` by searching through all `BaseAction` descendants. It fails to verify whether the requested action is actually permitted or registered for the resource context specified in the request URL (e.g., `/admin/resources/posts/actions`).
Consequently, an attacker can invoke sensitive actions (e.g., `Avo::Actions::ToggleAdmin`) through an unrelated resource endpoint (e.g., `Post`), bypassing the intended resource-action mapping.
### Impact
This flaw results in significant security risks:
- **Privilege Escalation:** An authenticated user with low privileges can execute administrative actions (like toggling admin roles) to escalate their own or others' permissions.
- **Unauthorized Operations:** Actions designed for restricted resources can be triggered against any record ID in the database.
- **Data Integrity Compromise:** Attackers can perform unauthorized destructive operations (e.g., Delete, Archive, or Update) on records they should not have access to.
### Proof of Concept (PoC)
**Steps to Reproduce:**
01. Log in to the Avo admin panel with limited permissions.
02. Identify a target record ID (e.g., User ID: 1) and a sensitive action class (e.g., `Avo::Actions::ToggleAdmin`).
03. Send a POST request to a resource endpoint where the target action is not registered:
- **URL:** `POST /admin/resources/posts/actions`
- **Payload:** `action_id=Avo::Actions::ToggleAdmin&fields[avo_resource_ids]=1`
04. The server executes the `ToggleAdmin` logic on User 1, even though the request was made through the `posts` resource context.
**PoC Script Snippet:**
```python
# Simulating the unauthorized action execution
data = {
'action_id': 'Avo::Actions::ToggleAdmin',
'fields[avo_resource_ids]': '1', # Target Record ID
'authenticity_token': csrf_token
}
response = session.post(f"{BASE_URL}/admin/resources/posts/actions", data=data)
```
### Remediation
Restrict the action lookup to only those actions explicitly registered for the current resource context:
```ruby
def action_class
# Validate that the action is registered for the current resource
@resource.get_actions.find do |action|
action.to_s == params[:action_id]
end
end
```
### Discoverer
Illunight
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.