Bug Bounty Essentials: Karthikeyan Nagaraj

Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF): How Attackers Can Exploit Internal Networks

Leveraging Internal Servers to Bypass Firewalls and Access Sensitive Data

Server-side request Forgery (SSRF) is a sophisticated vulnerability that occurs when an attacker can manipulate server-side requests, causing the server to fetch or interact with unintended resources. This can allow attackers to target internal services, bypass firewalls, or even access sensitive data from internal or external systems.

What is SSRF?

In a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) attack, the vulnerable server is tricked into making unauthorized requests on behalf of the attacker. Since the server often has access to internal systems that are protected from public exposure, this can lead to severe consequences, including:

• Accessing Internal Resources: Attackers can query internal systems or APIs that are otherwise protected by the network firewall.
• Reading Local Files: Attackers may force the server to access local files by passing file paths (e.g., /etc/passwd) as part of the forged request.
• Exfiltrating Sensitive Data: Internal services like…