Pentest for Analytics Platform

The client requested a full process of penetration testing for the target system under test (an analytics platform), including:

• Test methodology
• Test procedure
• Summary of found issues

• Test methodology:
  • Testing Approach: Grey box
  • Test Category: Analytics API Security Assessment
  • Objective: to evaluate whether access control mechanisms properly enforce role-based access across API endpoints that handle sensitive network and user data
  • Tools Used: Burp Suite Professional (for API interception, token manipulation, request replay, and response analysis)
• Test procedure:
  • API Mapping and Role Analysis
    • Identified key API endpoints responsible for admin-only dashboards, raw CDR data, network health metrics, and fraud signal intelligence.
    • Analyzed documentation and Swagger files to infer endpoint patterns and expected parameters.
  • Access Control Testing (IDOR Focus)
    • Authenticated as a high-privilege (admin) user to observe authorized API calls and responses.
    • Replayed the same requests using a low-privilege (read-only or analyst) user's JWT/OAuth token.
    • Altered user IDs, tenant IDs, and role flags in headers and body content to test for Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) conditions.
  • Response Analysis
    • Compared responses received by admin and low-privilege users.
    • Checked for discrepancies in HTTP status codes, data visibility, and error handling.

• Detected critical authorization flaws before exploitation: Exposed IDORs and token-scope weaknesses that would have allowed low-privilege users to access admin-only data.
• Strengthened RBAC enforcement: Delivered specific code and API design changes to enforce object-level access control and reduce attack surface.
• Reduced sensitive data exposure: Recommended error-handling and filtering practices to eliminate information leakage in responses and logs.
• Improved operational security and auditability: Proposed logging, token scope validation, and CI checks to prevent regressions and enable faster incident response.
• Business risk reduction: A prioritized remediation roadmap that aligned security fixes with the client’s compliance and uptime objectives.