API Penetration Testing: Identifying BOLA and BFLA Vulnerabilities Before Attackers Do
How Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA) and Broken Function Level Authorization (BFLA) expose sensitive databases, and how ethical hackers find them.
Why APIs Are the Primary Modern Breach Vector
Modern Single Page Applications (SPAs) and mobile backends expose hundreds of REST and GraphQL endpoints that interact directly with database models, bypassing traditional web application firewalls.
Dissecting Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA)
BOLA occurs when an endpoint accepts an object identifier (e.g., `/api/v1/invoices/10492`) without verifying whether the requesting user owns that invoice. Attackers simply iterate through ID numbers to dump entire customer databases.
Testing Methodologies for BFLA
Broken Function Level Authorization occurs when unprivileged users invoke administrative routes (e.g., swapping `GET /users/profile` with `PUT /admin/roles`). Grey Box API penetration testing tests matrices of user roles against all documented and shadow endpoints.
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