Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves unauthorized access to private notification feeds by supplying arbitrary user_id values to the GET /social/interactions endpoint without ownership verification.

To detect exploitation attempts on your network or system, you can monitor HTTP GET requests to the /social/interactions endpoint that include user_id parameters differing from the authenticated user's ID.

Suggested commands to detect such activity include:

• Using network traffic analysis tools like tcpdump or Wireshark to filter HTTP GET requests to /social/interactions with user_id parameters.
• Example tcpdump command to capture HTTP GET requests to the vulnerable endpoint (replace <interface> with your network interface):
• tcpdump -i <interface> -A 'tcp port 80 and (((ip[2:2] - ((ip[0]&0xf)<<2)) - ((tcp[12]&0xf0)>>2)) != 0)' | grep 'GET /social/interactions'
• Analyzing web server logs (e.g., access.log) for GET requests to /social/interactions with user_id parameters that do not match the authenticated user.
• Example grep command to find suspicious requests in logs:
• grep 'GET /social/interactions' /path/to/access.log | grep 'user_id='

Further manual inspection is needed to verify if the user_id parameter values correspond to the authenticated user or indicate enumeration attempts.

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability exists in NewsBlur versions before 14.5.0 and involves broken access control. Authenticated users can exploit it by providing arbitrary user_id values to the GET /social/interactions endpoint. Because the system does not verify ownership of these user_id values, attackers can read private notification feeds belonging to other users.

In other words, an attacker can enumerate user_id values and access another user's follows, replies, and social activity without proper authorization.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can lead to unauthorized disclosure of private user information, including follows, replies, and social activities. If exploited, it compromises user privacy and can result in exposure of sensitive social interactions to unauthorized parties.

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Compliance Impact

The vulnerability allows unauthorized access to private notification feeds and social activity data of other users by exploiting broken access control. This exposure of personal user data without proper authorization could lead to non-compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA, which require strict controls over access to personal and sensitive information.

Specifically, the ability for attackers to enumerate user IDs and access private follows, replies, and social activities without ownership verification may constitute a violation of user privacy and data security requirements mandated by these standards.

Mitigation by updating to NewsBlur version 14.5.0, which implements stricter access controls, is necessary to restore compliance and protect user data.

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Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate the vulnerability in NewsBlur before version 14.5.0, you should update the application to version 14.5.0 or later, where the issue has been fixed.

The fix includes stricter access controls that ensure users can only access their own social interactions and private data, preventing unauthorized enumeration of user IDs.

• Upgrade NewsBlur to version 14.5.0 or later.
• Verify that access controls are properly enforced on the /social/interactions endpoint.

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