critical
Security Vulnerability

Authentication Bypass

Authentication bypass allows attackers to access protected resources without proper credentials, often through insecure direct object references, predictable tokens, or logic flaws.

Scan for This Vulnerability

What is Authentication Bypass?

Authentication bypass vulnerabilities let attackers skip or circumvent login requirements. This includes accessing resources by changing IDs in URLs, exploiting JWT validation issues, or finding unprotected API endpoints. These flaws can grant unauthorized access to user data or administrative functions.

How It Happens

  • Client-side only authentication checks
  • Predictable or sequential IDs
  • Missing server-side validation
  • JWT signature not verified
  • Unprotected API endpoints

Impact

Unauthorized access to user accounts

Data theft across users

Privilege escalation to admin

Complete application compromise

How to Detect

  • Try accessing resources with modified IDs
  • Test API endpoints without authentication
  • Check if JWT is validated server-side
  • Run VAS to test authentication flows

How to Fix

Always validate server-side

Never trust client-side authentication state.

// Verify auth on every request
const { data: { user } } = await supabase.auth.getUser();
if (!user) {
  return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Unauthorized' });
}

Use unpredictable identifiers

Use UUIDs instead of sequential IDs.

// BAD - predictable
/api/users/1
/api/users/2

// GOOD - UUIDs
/api/users/550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

Implement proper authorization

Check ownership, not just authentication.

// Check user owns the resource
const { data } = await supabase
  .from('posts')
  .select()
  .eq('id', postId)
  .eq('user_id', user.id)
  .single();

if (!data) {
  return res.status(403).json({ error: 'Forbidden' });
}

Is Your App Vulnerable?

VAS automatically scans for authentication bypass and provides detailed remediation guidance.

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