bypassing-authentication-with-forced-browsing

# Bypassing Authentication with Forced Browsing ## When to Use - During authorized penetration tests to discover hidden or unprotected administrative pages - When testing whether authentication is consistently enforced across all application endpoints - For identifying backup files, configuration files, and debug interfaces left exposed in production - When assessing access control on API endpoints that should require authentication - During security audits to validate that all sensitive resources enforce session validation ## Prerequisites - **Authorization**: Written penetration testing agreement covering directory enumeration - **ffuf**: Fast web fuzzer (`go install github.com/ffuf/ffuf/v2@latest`) - **Gobuster**: Directory brute-force tool (`apt install gobuster`) - **Burp Suite**: For intercepting and analyzing requests and responses - **Wordlists**: SecLists collection (`git clone https://github.com/danielmiessler/SecLists.git`) - **Target access**: Network connectivity and valid test credentials for authenticated comparison ## Workflow ### Step 1: Enumerate Hidden Directories and Files Use ffuf or Gobuster to discover paths not linked in the application's navigation. ```bash # Directory enumeration with ffuf ffuf -u https://target.example.com/FUZZ \ -w /usr/share/seclists/Discovery/Web-Content/raft-medium-directories.txt \ -mc 200,301,302,403 \ -fc 404 \ -o results-dirs.json -of json \ -t 50 -rate 100 # File enumeration with common extensions ffuf -u...