Overview
Identified 15+ critical business logic vulnerabilities that could have led to large-scale data exfiltration.
The Challenge
A major e-commerce platform processing millions of transactions daily was preparing for a massive holiday sale event. While they regularly used automated SAST and DAST tools, they engaged HackVitraSec for an expert Manual Secure Code Review of their core payment and inventory management microservices to uncover hidden business logic flaws.
Our Approach: Manual Secure Code Review
Our application security experts conducted a line-by-line review of their mission-critical Node.js and Java codebases, focusing on areas where automated tools historically fail.
- Business Logic Analysis: Scrutinized the checkout and coupon application logic to identify potential price manipulation and discount stacking vulnerabilities.
- Cryptographic Review: Audited the implementation of encryption for stored credit card tokens and user passwords.
- Session Management: Analyzed the JWT (JSON Web Token) implementation for weak signing algorithms and improper token expiration handling.
Key Discoveries
The manual review proved invaluable, identifying several high-severity flaws that automated scanners missed:
- Coupon Stacking Flaw: A logical flaw in the cart service allowed attackers to apply the same 10% discount code multiple times by manipulating the JSON payload array, effectively reducing the cart total to zero.
- Inventory Race Condition: A race condition during checkout allowed a user to purchase more items than were physically available in the inventory database, leading to potential supply chain chaos.
- Insecure Deserialization: Found in a legacy Java microservice handling supplier product uploads, which could have led to Remote Code Execution (RCE).
The Solution & Impact
We collaborated directly with their engineering team to patch all identified vulnerabilities within a two-week sprint, prior to the holiday sale.
Results:
- Prevented potential massive revenue loss from the coupon stacking and inventory manipulation vulnerabilities.
- Ensured a secure, flawless holiday sales event with zero security incidents.
- Upskilled their internal development team on secure coding practices for business logic.