A critical vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-26523, has been discovered in the popular RupeeWeb trading platform. The security flaw exists due to insufficient authorization controls on certain API endpoints associated with adding and deleting operations. If successfully exploited, this vulnerability could allow an authenticated remote attacker to modify information belonging to other user accounts. This post will discuss the vulnerability in more detail, provide code snippets to demonstrate the issue, and offer links to original reference materials.

Vulnerability Details

The vulnerability in RupeeWeb trading platform exists because certain API endpoints responsible for addition and deletion operations do not adequately verify that the requesting user has the necessary authorization permissions. As a result, an attacker can bypass these controls by crafting a malicious request to the affected API endpoint. The attacker would need to have access to an authenticated session on the platform, but once this condition is met, they can potentially modify information on other user accounts.

Code Snippet

Here is a code snippet illustrating the problem. Notice that the add_item and delete_item functions do not check if the user has the necessary authorization to perform these actions:

@app.route("/api/items/add", methods=["POST"])
@login_required
def add_item():
    item_data = request.get_json()
    item = Item(item_data)
    db.session.add(item)
    db.session.commit()
    return jsonify({"message": "Item added successfully"})

@app.route("/api/items/delete", methods=["DELETE"])
@login_required
def delete_item():
    item_id = request.args.get("item_id")
    item = Item.query.get(item_id)
    if item:
        db.session.delete(item)
        db.session.commit()
        return jsonify({"message": "Item deleted successfully"})
    else:
        return jsonify({"error": "Item not found"})

Exploit Example

An attacker with an authenticated session on the RupeeWeb trading platform can exploit this vulnerability by crafting a malicious HTTP request to add or delete items under another user's account. Here is an example of a curl command that an attacker might use:

# Replace <session_token> with the attacker's authenticated session token
# Replace <target_user_id> with the ID of the user whose account the attacker wants to modify
# Replace <item_data> with the data for the item the attacker wants to add or delete
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer <session_token>" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"user_id": "<target_user_id>", "item_data": "<item_data>"}' https://rupeeweb.com/api/items/add

- NVD - CVE-2025-26523
- Vulnerability Announcement on RupeeWeb's Blog
- Github Issue discussing CVE-2025-26523

How to Mitigate the Vulnerability

To mitigate this vulnerability, the RupeeWeb trading platform should be updated to perform proper authorization checks on the add_item and delete_item API endpoints. The platform should verify that the user making the request has the necessary permissions to perform these actions. Here is an example of how to modify the code snippet mentioned earlier to include a basic authorization check:

def is_authorized(user_id):
    # Implement your own authorization logic here
    # Return True if the user with user_id is authorized to perform the action, otherwise return False
    pass

@app.route("/api/items/add", methods=["POST"])
@login_required
def add_item():
    if not is_authorized(current_user.id):
        return jsonify({"error": "You are not authorized to perform this action"}), 403
    # Rest of the function ...

@app.route("/api/items/delete", methods=["DELETE"])
@login_required
def delete_item():
    if not is_authorized(current_user.id):
        return jsonify({"error": "You are not authorized to perform this action"}), 403
    # Rest of the function ...

Conclusion

The CVE-2025-26523 vulnerability in the RupeeWeb trading platform exposes users to potential unauthorized modifications to their accounts. Developers of the platform should take immediate action to patch the issue and ensure their users' data remains secure.

Timeline

Published on: 02/14/2025 12:15:29 UTC