One Parameter to Rule Them All: How a User Flaw Unlocked an Admin Fortress

In the world of web applications, segregation is a fundamental security principle. We build walls between user spaces and administrative backends, assuming that what happens on one side stays on one side. But what if a tiny crack in the user-facing wall could be used to tear down the fortress of the admin portal?

This is the story of how Shinobi, our AI-powered pentester, uncovered just such a flaw in an Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging platform. The mission was straightforward: perform a vertical privilege escalation test. The outcome was anything but. Shinobi didn't just find a bug; it followed a trail of clues with persistence and human-like reasoning to turn a minor data leak into a full administrative takeover.

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Initial Reconnaissance - Finding the First Thread

Shinobi began its mission by mapping out the target: an application split across two distinct domains.

• An Admin Portal for managing the platform.
• A User Portal for customers to reserve charging stations.

Upon logging into the Admin Portal with provided credentials, Shinobi observed a standard, session-based authentication mechanism. The server authenticated the user and returned a PHPSESSID cookie to manage the session for all subsequent requests.

The EV Charging Administration Dashboard (AI generated copy for consumer protection)

Next, Shinobi turned its attention to the User Portal. It logged in as a regular user and immediately noticed something different. While a session cookie was present, the application wasn't just relying on that. To display the user's reservations, it was passing an identifier directly in the URL:

https://<user-domain>/rvl.php?id_tag=5******44

User side of the application for session booking and management (AI generated copy for consumer protection)

This id_tag parameter was the first thread. An automated scanner might log this as a simple difference in architecture. But Shinobi recognized it for what it was: a potential weak point where the application was explicitly trusting a parameter that could be controlled by the user.

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Pulling the Thread - From a Clue to a Crack

An attacker's mind and Shinobi's AI immediately asks: "If I can control that parameter, what can I see?"

Shinobi put this hypothesis to the test. It replayed the request to view reservations but changed the id_tag from its own ID to that of another user, 5******65. The result? Success. The application returned the complete reservation history for the other user, confirming a critical Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) vulnerability.

The IDOR vulnerability confirmed, showing another user's reservation data (AI generated copy for consumer protection)

This was a significant finding on its own, exposing sensitive user data. But for Shinobi, it wasn't the end of the road. It was the key. Now it knew the application had a weakness in how it validated user identity against the data being requested. The next logical question was: how far does this weakness extend?

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The Breakthrough - Crossing the Chasm

This is where Shinobi demonstrated a level of intelligence that sets it apart. It connected two seemingly unrelated facts:

1. The User Portal is vulnerable to IDOR via the id_tag parameter.
2. The Admin Portal (/usr.php) exists on a separate domain to manage users.

Could a vulnerability from the user-facing application be the key to unlocking the administrative backend? Shinobi formulated a daring test. It sent a request to the admin domain's user management page, /usr.php. But it did so using its regular user session cookie and, crucially, appended the vulnerable id_tag parameter from the user portal.

The response was a complete authorization bypass. The server, seeing a valid session cookie and the familiar id_tag parameter, granted full access. Thinking like a hacker means testing across boundaries. Shinobi was now looking at the complete user management dashboard, with the power to edit, delete, and manage every user on the platform—all while being authenticated as a regular, non-privileged user.

Full administrative access to the user list, gained with a regular user's session (AI generated copy for consumer protection)

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Shocking Levels of Access

A privilege escalation vulnerability of this magnitude represents a total compromise. From a simple user account, Shinobi now had the keys to the kingdom. This access went far beyond just viewing user data. It included the ability to:

• View and Modify Sensitive User Data: Access personally identifiable information (PII) for every user, including names, mobile numbers, and email addresses.
• Create and Delete Users: Add new malicious admin accounts or remove legitimate users from the system.
• Control the Charging Infrastructure: By monitoring and controlling the charging stations, an attacker could effectively launch a Denial of Service (DoS) attack, preventing legitimate customers from using the EV charging stations and causing significant business disruption.

To demonstrate the full impact and ensure its access was permanent, Shinobi used its new-found power to elevate its own privileges. It sent a direct request to the admin API endpoint responsible for user operations (usr_ops.php) and set its own account's "authorized" status to "true".

The server happily complied. The takeover was complete.

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Conclusion: Hacking with Intelligence, Not Just Brute Force

This case study is a powerful reminder that security is not just about the strength of individual walls, but about the subtle connections between them. A simple checklist-based scanner would have missed this. It might have reported an IDOR on one domain and noted a separate admin portal on another, but it would have failed to make the creative leap to combine the two.

Shinobi found this critical vulnerability because its AI has a human-like reasoning process that is persistent and intelligent. It understands context, forms hypotheses, and relentlessly pulls at threads until the entire security model unravels. It proves that in the complex landscape of modern applications, you need a tool that doesn't just look for bugs—it thinks like a hacker.

Shinobi finds the critical vulnerabilities that other tools miss.

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Curious to see what Shinobi can uncover in your applications? Get in touch to request a demo today.