Description

Unauthenticated Broken Access Control in Stitch Express <= 1.9.0 versions.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-19T13:18:08.670Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-19T13:18:08.670Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This security analysis evaluates an unauthenticated broken access control vulnerability affecting Stitch Express versions 1.9.0 and prior. The flaw permits unauthenticated remote attackers to bypass authorization enforcement mechanisms and access restricted application functionality or data resources without valid credentials. The primary impact of this vulnerability involves unauthorized information disclosure, potential data manipulation, and the circumvention of security boundaries within the affected system. The risk implications are severe, as exploitation requires no prior authentication, lowering the barrier to entry for malicious actors seeking to compromise the confidentiality and integrity of the underlying platform. Attack capabilities include interacting with sensitive endpoints natively restricted to authorized roles. Exploitation requirements are minimal, relying solely on network connectivity to the target application hosting the vulnerable Stitch Express software. Remediation requires immediate vendor-supplied patching or the implementation of strict access control validations at the routing and controller layers to ensure proper authentication checks are uniformly enforced across all sensitive endpoints.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability stems from improper authorization checks within the access control implementation of Stitch Express versions 1.9.0 and below. Specifically, the root cause resides in the application's failure to validate the authentication state and privilege levels of incoming requests before dispatching them to sensitive backend handlers or rendering restricted views. The vulnerable component encompasses the routing and request-handling architecture responsible for gating administrative or user-specific functionality.\nNetwork exposure is external, meaning any remote attacker with standard network access to the web application can initiate HTTP requests targeting the unprotected endpoints. Authentication requirements are entirely absent, as the application processes the requests without verifying session tokens, cookies, or cryptographic credentials. Privilege requirements are nonexistent; the attacker operates under an unauthenticated context yet successfully executes privileged actions due to the absence of role-based access control (RBAC) validation.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, the attacker identifies the sensitive endpoints or resource paths exposed by the Stitch Express application that lack adequate authorization middleware. Second, the attacker crafts a direct HTTP request targeting the restricted resource without supplying any authentication headers or valid session identifiers. Third, the vulnerable application routes the request directly to the underlying function handler, bypassing the requisite security checks. Finally, the application processes the request and returns the sensitive data or executes the requested operation, granting the unauthenticated attacker unauthorized access.\nPost-exploitation impact depends on the specific functionality exposed by the unprotected endpoints, potentially ranging from the unauthorized retrieval of sensitive application data to the execution of state-changing operations. The payload behavior involves standard HTTP verb manipulation to interact with backend logic intended exclusively for authenticated users."
}