Access Control & State Machine Hardening in Web Applications
Environment & Objective
Target Environment: Django DRF & PostgreSQL Test Environment
Prevent privilege escalation and illegal state jumps in multi-role governance workflows.
Tools & Instrumentation
Analysis & Execution Strategy
Simulated self-approval attacks where a committee user attempts to approve their own claim payout via direct API parameter modification.
Security Findings & Evidence
Unprotected API endpoints relying solely on frontend state could be manipulated. Backend state machine guards successfully blocked illegal state jumps.
Automated Django test suite output and HTTP request logs attempting direct endpoint parameter tampering.
Remediation & Recommendation
Implement django-fsm state machine transitions with explicit backend governance guards enforcing context isolation.
Key Practical Lessons Learned
Frontend access controls are user experience enhancements, not security boundaries — backend enforcement is mandatory.