Overview
In an SSRF attack, the attacker can abuse functionality on the server to read or update internal resources. The attacker can often target internal systems that are not accessible from the public internet, such as databases, internal APIs, or cloud metadata services.
Impact
- Information Disclosure: Reading sensitive files or internal configuration.
- Internal Port Scanning: Mapping the internal network.
- Remote Code Execution: In some cases, SSRF can be used to trigger further vulnerabilities on internal systems.
Prevention
- Allowlisting: Only allowing requests to a predefined list of trusted domains or IP addresses.
- Input Validation: Strictly validating any user-supplied URLs.
- Network Isolation: Ensuring the application server cannot communicate with sensitive internal services unless necessary.