nodeSolidServer / nodeSolidServer/node-solid-server

Information exposure through Link header by guessing an allocated URI

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security
Dominant language
JavaScript
Stars
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Forks
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Description

NSS responds to unauthenticated and unauthorized GET requests to /foo/bar (that exists) by including the HTTP header:

Link: <bar.acl>; rel="acl", <bar.meta> rel="describedBy", <http://www.w3.org/ns/ldp#Resource>; rel="type"

For GET requests to non-existing resources eg. /foo/baz, the response doesn't include the HTTP Link header.

Thus, the security consideration: existence of a resource can potentially be known by guessing or anticipating an allocated URI.

There are use cases where the server may want to reveal the information in the Link header in the response. If the server doesn't make the distinction between intentionally revealing and unintentionally exposing, the server is encouraged to minimize information leaking. So, in the case here, it should be consistent by omitting the Link header for unauthenticated and unauthorized requests.

Contributor guide

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Trace the GET request handling and Link-header generation for existing versus missing paths. Compare unauthenticated and unauthorized requests to /foo/bar and /foo/baz; done means the Link header is consistently absent for those denied requests, with intended disclosure behavior covered by tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
backend, security
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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