Cyber Risks · PortSwigger Research

Lab: Host header authentication bypass

Summary: PortSwigger's Web Security Academy lab demonstrates a host header authentication bypass in which an application decides a user's privilege level from the HTTP Host header. The solution changes the Host header to localhost on a GET /admin request, which grants access to the admin panel, and then sends GET /admin/delete?username=carlos to delete the user carlos.

What's compelling: The application trusted a client-supplied header to decide who counts as a local user, so a single header value stood between an ordinary request and the admin panel's user-deletion function.

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Topics
Vulnerabilities & Patching
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