Cyber Risks · PortSwigger Research

Lab: Exploiting path delimiters for web cache deception

Summary: PortSwigger's lab walks through a web cache deception attack in which the tester uses Burp Intruder to find that the origin server treats ';' and '?' as path delimiters, then appends ';abc.js' to /my-account so the cache stores the victim's account page under a static-extension rule, confirmed by the X-Cache header flipping from miss to hit. The crafted URL is delivered to the user carlos, whose cached account response exposes his API key.

Key Takeaway: The whole exploit hinges on a mismatch between how the origin server and the cache parse the same URL - a gap that lets one user's authenticated page get stored and served to anyone who requests the same path.

Read the original at PortSwigger Research ↗

Topics
Vulnerabilities & Patching
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