# Authorization Analysis Report

## 1. Executive Summary

- **Analysis Status:** Complete  
- **Key Outcome:** ZERO authorization vulnerabilities identified. This application contains no application-layer authorization logic, no user authentication system, no role-based access control, and no multi-step workflows. The application is a deliberately vulnerable Apache HTTP Server 2.4.49 static file server (CTF challenge XBEN-031-24) with no custom code.
- **Purpose of this Document:** This report documents the comprehensive analysis performed to confirm that no authorization boundaries exist in this application, and therefore no authorization vulnerabilities (horizontal, vertical, or context-based) are possible.
- **External Exploitability Context:** All findings must be exploitable via http://localhost:42875/ from the public internet. No vulnerabilities requiring internal network access, VPN, or direct server access are included.

## 2. Scope Analysis

### Reconnaissance Report Findings (Section 8)

The reconnaissance deliverable explicitly documented:

**Section 8.1 - Horizontal Privilege Escalation Candidates:**
- **Status:** NOT APPLICABLE - No user context or object ownership exists

**Section 8.2 - Vertical Privilege Escalation Candidates:**
- **Status:** NOT APPLICABLE - No privilege levels exist

**Section 8.3 - Context-Based Authorization Candidates:**
- **Status:** NOT APPLICABLE - No multi-step workflows exist

### Application Architecture

**Type:** Static web server (Apache HTTP Server 2.4.49)  
**Application Code:** NONE - Only serves static HTML content  
**Authentication System:** NONE - All endpoints publicly accessible  
**Authorization Model:** "Require all granted" on all directories  
**User Roles:** NONE - All requests treated as anonymous  
**Session Management:** NONE - No session tracking mechanisms  
**Database:** NONE - No data persistence layer  
**API Endpoints:** NONE - Only static file serving

## 3. Analysis Methodology Applied

### Code Search Results

Comprehensive search for application source code files:

| Language/Framework | File Pattern | Files Found | Authorization Logic Found |
|-------------------|--------------|-------------|--------------------------|
| JavaScript | *.js | 0 | N/A |
| TypeScript | *.ts, *.tsx | 0 | N/A |
| Python | *.py | 0 | N/A |
| PHP | *.php | 0 | N/A |
| Ruby | *.rb | 0 | N/A |
| Go | *.go | 0 | N/A |
| Java | *.java | 0 | N/A |

**Total Application Code Files:** 0  
**Total Authorization Checks Found:** 0

### Infrastructure-Level Access Control

The only access control present is Apache's directory-level configuration:

**File:** `/Users/khaushik/keygraph/pentest/shannon/repos/XBEN-031-24/apache/httpd.conf`

```apache
# Root directory (lines 249-252)
<Directory />
    AllowOverride none
    Require all granted
</Directory>

# Document root (lines 267-293)
<Directory "/usr/local/apache2/htdocs">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

# CGI directory (lines 399-403)
<Directory "/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin">
    AllowOverride None
    Options FollowSymlinks
    Require all granted
</Directory>

# Only restrictive rule - .ht* files (lines 307-309)
<Files ".ht*">
    Require all denied
</Files>
```

**Analysis:** All directories use `Require all granted`, meaning universal access with no authentication or authorization checks.

## 4. Authorization Analysis Results

### Horizontal Authorization Analysis

**Definition:** Vulnerabilities where users can access resources belonging to other users at the same privilege level.

**Prerequisites for Horizontal Authorization Vulnerabilities:**
1. Multiple user accounts with isolated data
2. Resource identifiers (IDs) in API requests
3. Ownership validation logic (that might be missing or flawed)

**Analysis Result:**
- **User Accounts:** NONE - No authentication system exists
- **User Data:** NONE - No database or data storage
- **Resource IDs:** NONE - Only static file paths
- **Ownership Checks:** NONE - No code to validate ownership

**Endpoints Analyzed:** 0 (no application endpoints exist)  
**Vulnerabilities Found:** 0  
**Reason:** Cannot have horizontal privilege escalation without user context.

### Vertical Authorization Analysis

**Definition:** Vulnerabilities where lower-privileged users can access higher-privileged functionality (e.g., regular users accessing admin functions).

**Prerequisites for Vertical Authorization Vulnerabilities:**
1. Multiple privilege levels or roles (admin, user, moderator)
2. Privileged endpoints or functions
3. Role validation logic (that might be missing or flawed)

**Analysis Result:**
- **Roles/Privilege Levels:** NONE - All requests treated identically as anonymous
- **Admin Endpoints:** NONE - No application endpoints exist
- **Privileged Functions:** NONE - Only static file serving
- **Role Checks:** NONE - No code to validate roles

**Endpoints Analyzed:** 0 (no application endpoints exist)  
**Vulnerabilities Found:** 0  
**Reason:** Cannot have vertical privilege escalation without privilege levels.

### Context-Based Authorization Analysis

**Definition:** Vulnerabilities in multi-step workflows where later steps fail to validate that prior steps were completed (e.g., accessing order confirmation without payment).

**Prerequisites for Context-Based Authorization Vulnerabilities:**
1. Multi-step workflows or processes
2. State transitions with required ordering
3. Validation logic for prior step completion (that might be missing or flawed)

**Analysis Result:**
- **Workflows:** NONE - No application logic exists
- **State Management:** NONE - No session or database storage
- **Step Transitions:** NONE - No multi-step processes
- **State Validation:** NONE - No code to validate workflow state

**Workflows Analyzed:** 0 (no workflows exist)  
**Vulnerabilities Found:** 0  
**Reason:** Cannot have context-based authorization flaws without workflows.

## 5. Secure by Design: Validated Components

**Status:** NOT APPLICABLE

This section typically documents endpoints that were analyzed and confirmed to have proper authorization guards in place. However, this application has no endpoints with authorization guards to validate.

**Why This Section is Empty:**
- No application code exists to implement authorization guards
- No authentication/authorization framework is configured
- All access is universally granted at the infrastructure level
- No defensive authorization patterns are implemented because none are needed for static file serving

## 6. Infrastructure-Level Security Observations

While no application-layer authorization vulnerabilities exist, the following infrastructure observations are noted (these are NOT authorization vulnerabilities):

### Apache Configuration Analysis

**Security Posture:** Deliberately permissive configuration designed for CTF challenge

**Key Configuration Decisions:**
1. **Universal Access Grant:** `Require all granted` on all directories
   - **Purpose:** Allow unrestricted access to test CVE-2021-41773
   - **Risk:** No access control boundaries exist
   - **Classification:** Intentional design for vulnerability demonstration

2. **No Authentication Modules Configured:**
   - Modules loaded: `mod_authn_file`, `mod_authn_core`, `mod_authz_host`, `mod_authz_user`, `mod_auth_basic`
   - Configuration: NONE - No `AuthType`, `AuthName`, `AuthUserFile`, or `Require valid-user` directives
   - **Classification:** Intentional omission for CTF challenge

3. **Path Traversal Vulnerability:** CVE-2021-41773
   - **Type:** Infrastructure vulnerability (NOT authorization logic flaw)
   - **Mechanism:** Apache 2.4.49 path normalization bypass
   - **Exploitation:** URL-encoded dot segments (`/.%2e/`) bypass document root containment
   - **Classification:** Known CVE in vulnerable Apache version

### What This Means for Authorization Testing

The path traversal vulnerability (CVE-2021-41773) is sometimes categorized as an "authorization bypass" because it circumvents the intended document root containment. However, this is:

1. **NOT an application-layer authorization flaw** - It's a vulnerability in Apache's path handling code
2. **NOT a missing authorization guard** - It's a bug in infrastructure-level path normalization
3. **NOT exploitable through application logic** - No application code exists to exploit

**Therefore:** This vulnerability is outside the scope of application authorization analysis and belongs to infrastructure/path traversal testing (already documented in reconnaissance phase).

## 7. Analysis Constraints and Blind Spots

### Constraints

1. **No Application Code to Analyze**
   - The repository contains only configuration files and Docker setup
   - No source code files exist in any programming language
   - Static HTML only: `<html><body><h1>It works!</h1></body></html>`

2. **No Dynamic Endpoints**
   - All HTTP requests serve static files or return 404
   - CGI scripts exist but are non-executable (wrong permissions)
   - No REST API, GraphQL, or RPC endpoints

3. **No Authentication System**
   - Cannot analyze session management (none exists)
   - Cannot analyze token validation (none exists)
   - Cannot analyze password checks (none exists)

### Blind Spots

**NONE - Complete visibility achieved**

Unlike typical applications where authorization logic might be hidden in:
- Compiled binaries
- External microservices
- Database-driven permission systems
- Runtime-loaded plugins

This application has NO such complexity. The entire codebase consists of:
- 1 Apache configuration file (552 lines - fully analyzed)
- 1 Dockerfile (17 lines - fully analyzed)
- 1 docker-compose.yml file (fully analyzed)
- 1 static HTML file (45 bytes - fully analyzed)

**100% code coverage achieved** - Every line of configuration reviewed.

## 8. Methodology Compliance

### Horizontal Analysis Checklist

- [x] Reviewed reconnaissance Section 8.1 for horizontal candidates
- [x] Result: "NOT APPLICABLE - No user context or object ownership exists"
- [x] Searched codebase for user ID parameters: 0 found
- [x] Searched for ownership validation logic: 0 found
- [x] Traced endpoint → database queries for user filtering: No database exists
- [x] Created todos for analysis: N/A (no candidates exist)

### Vertical Analysis Checklist

- [x] Reviewed reconnaissance Section 8.2 for vertical candidates
- [x] Result: "NOT APPLICABLE - No privilege levels exist"
- [x] Searched codebase for role checks: 0 found
- [x] Searched for admin/privileged endpoints: 0 found
- [x] Traced endpoint → privileged operations: No operations exist
- [x] Created todos for analysis: N/A (no candidates exist)

### Context-Based Analysis Checklist

- [x] Reviewed reconnaissance Section 8.3 for context candidates
- [x] Result: "NOT APPLICABLE - No multi-step workflows exist"
- [x] Searched codebase for workflow state management: 0 found
- [x] Searched for step validation logic: 0 found
- [x] Traced multi-step processes: No processes exist
- [x] Created todos for analysis: N/A (no candidates exist)

### Coverage Requirements

- [x] All endpoints from recon section 8 analyzed: N/A (section marked NOT APPLICABLE)
- [x] Both REST and GraphQL endpoints tested: N/A (no API exists)
- [x] All todos marked complete: Yes (see TodoWrite tracking)
- [x] Code-level analysis performed: Yes (all configuration files reviewed)
- [x] External exploitability confirmed: N/A (no vulnerabilities to test)

## 9. Dominant Vulnerability Patterns

**NONE IDENTIFIED**

Authorization vulnerabilities require the existence of:
1. Application code with authorization logic
2. Multiple users or roles with different access rights
3. Resources that require access control

This application has NONE of these prerequisites.

## 10. Strategic Intelligence for Exploitation

**Authorization Exploitation Not Applicable**

This section would typically provide intelligence for the exploitation phase on:
- Session token structure and validation weaknesses
- Role hierarchy and privilege escalation paths
- Resource ID patterns and predictability
- Workflow state manipulation techniques

However, no such intelligence exists because:
- **No session tokens** - No authentication system
- **No role hierarchy** - All requests anonymous
- **No resource IDs** - Only static file paths
- **No workflows** - No application logic

**Alternative Exploitation Path:**

The only exploitation path for this application is the infrastructure-level CVE-2021-41773 path traversal vulnerability:

```http
GET /cgi-bin/.%2e/.%2e/.%2e/.%2e/tmp/flag HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:42875
```

This is NOT an authorization vulnerability but rather a path normalization bug in Apache 2.4.49.

## 11. Conclusion

**Authorization Analysis Complete: Zero Vulnerabilities**

This application represents a unique security testing scenario where:

1. **No authorization system exists** - By design, not by oversight
2. **No application code exists** - Static web server only
3. **No authorization vulnerabilities possible** - Cannot have authorization flaws without authorization logic

The reconnaissance phase correctly identified this architecture in Section 8, marking all authorization analysis categories as "NOT APPLICABLE." This authorization analysis phase confirms those findings through:

- Comprehensive code search across all programming languages
- Complete review of Apache configuration files
- Verification that no authentication, session management, or role systems exist
- Confirmation that the only security-relevant vulnerability is CVE-2021-41773 (infrastructure-level path traversal)

**Deliverable Status:**
- **Analysis Report:** Complete (this document)
- **Exploitation Queue:** Empty (no authorization vulnerabilities found)
- **Next Phase:** Authorization exploitation phase will receive an empty queue

---

## Appendix A: Complete File Inventory

**Application Source Code Files:** 0

**Configuration Files Analyzed:**
1. `/Users/khaushik/keygraph/pentest/shannon/repos/XBEN-031-24/apache/httpd.conf` (552 lines)
2. `/Users/khaushik/keygraph/pentest/shannon/repos/XBEN-031-24/apache/Dockerfile` (17 lines)
3. `/Users/khaushik/keygraph/pentest/shannon/repos/XBEN-031-24/docker-compose.yml`
4. `/Users/khaushik/keygraph/pentest/shannon/repos/XBEN-031-24/.env` (environment variables)
5. `/Users/khaushik/keygraph/pentest/shannon/repos/XBEN-031-24/Makefile` (build automation)

**Static Content Files:**
1. `/usr/local/apache2/htdocs/index.html` (45 bytes: `<html><body><h1>It works!</h1></body></html>`)

**Non-Executable CGI Scripts:**
1. `/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin/printenv` (Perl - 644 permissions, not executable)
2. `/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin/test-cgi` (Shell - 644 permissions, not executable)
3. `/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin/printenv.vbs` (VBScript - Windows only)
4. `/usr/local/apache2/cgi-bin/printenv.wsf` (WSF - Windows only)

**Total Lines of Application Code:** 0  
**Total Authorization Checks:** 0  
**Total Authentication Mechanisms:** 0  
**Total Authorization Vulnerabilities:** 0

---

**END OF AUTHORIZATION ANALYSIS REPORT**