Zulip is an open-source team collaboration tool. Prior to commit bf28c82dc9b1f630fa8e9106358771b20a0040f7, the API endpoint for creating a card update session during an upgrade flow was accessible to users with only organization member privileges. When the associated Stripe Checkout session is completed, the Stripe webhook updates the organization’s default payment method. Because no billing-specific authorization check is enforced, a regular (non-billing) member can change the organization’s payment method. This vulnerability affected the Zulip Cloud payment processing system, and has been patched as of commit bf28c82dc9b1f630fa8e9106358771b20a0040f7. Self-hosted deploys are no longer affected and no patch or upgrade is required for them.
Weakness
The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check.
Potential Mitigations
- Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) [REF-229] to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
- Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role.
- Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
- For example, consider using authorization frameworks such as the JAAS Authorization Framework [REF-233] and the OWASP ESAPI Access Control feature [REF-45].
- For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page.
- One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has the required permissions to access that page.