AVideo API Rate Limit Bypass via Bot User-Agent

Executive Summary

AVideo API fails to enforce rate limits when clients send a bot User-Agent header. This allows attackers to bypass all eight protected operations, including login brute-force protection. Attackers can send requests with a bot User-Agent to disable rate limiting and perform unlimited password guessing attempts against any account from a single IP address.

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Detection Guidance

Monitor for API requests containing bot User-Agent headers like 'Googlebot/2.1' or similar. Check logs for unusually high request volumes to protected endpoints such as login, video password checks, or views count. Use network traffic analysis tools to detect repeated requests from single IPs bypassing rate limits.

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Impact Analysis

Attackers can perform unlimited password guessing attempts against any account from a single IP address. This could lead to unauthorized access if accounts have weak passwords. It may also cause resource exhaustion from endpoints like videos_views_count and vmap.

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Compliance Impact

This vulnerability allows unlimited password guessing attempts against accounts due to failed rate limiting, which could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data. For GDPR, this may violate principles of data protection and security (Article 32). For HIPAA, it could compromise protected health information by enabling brute-force attacks on accounts with weak passwords.

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Mitigation Strategies

Disable or restrict bot User-Agent headers in API requests. Implement server-side rate limiting independent of User-Agent checks. Update AVideo to a patched version if available. Block suspicious User-Agent strings at the firewall or WAF level.

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