Summary
Conversion of empty strings to null allows disguising DPA reports as genuine self-deletion reports.
Details
Creating a DPA report about another user and leaving the evidence field empty causes that report to look like the reported user self-requested deletion of their data. Ingenuine report is not distinguishable from a genuine one.
This can be prevented by disabling convertEmptyStringsToNull in the middleware, or by validating evidence in Http/Controllers/DPAController::store() to not be empty.
PoC
New DPA report -> Select "...someone who I suspect is under the age of 13" for the "The above username is..." field -> Add nothing to the "Evidence" field -> Submit
Impact
Potential unauthorized deletion of any arbitrary user's data both in the current system (TSPortal) and subsequent systems if actioned.
References
Summary
Conversion of empty strings to null allows disguising DPA reports as genuine self-deletion reports.
Details
Creating a DPA report about another user and leaving the evidence field empty causes that report to look like the reported user self-requested deletion of their data. Ingenuine report is not distinguishable from a genuine one.
This can be prevented by disabling convertEmptyStringsToNull in the middleware, or by validating
evidencein Http/Controllers/DPAController::store() to not be empty.PoC
New DPA report -> Select "...someone who I suspect is under the age of 13" for the "The above username is..." field -> Add nothing to the "Evidence" field -> Submit
Impact
Potential unauthorized deletion of any arbitrary user's data both in the current system (TSPortal) and subsequent systems if actioned.
References