All About SSRF (“Server-Side Request Forgery”)

Are you curious how to find SSRF vulnerabilities yourself? If so, lets take a look at what SSRF really is and go over many details of SSRF such as how to find it, where it is typically found, payloads that assist in exploiting it successfully, and how they can be leveraged in the real world by attackers. Now lets jump right in!

What is SSRF?

SSRF, or Server-Side Request Forgery, is a type of web application vulnerability that allows an attacker to send unauthorized requests from the vulnerable server to other internal or external systems. The attack typically involves tricking a server-side component into making a request to a target of the attacker’s choosing, rather than the original intended target. This can lead to the exposure of sensitive information, compromise of internal systems, and even remote code execution depending on the use case.

A classic example of SSRF can be seen in an application that accepts user-controlled URLs and fetches the content of that URL as part of its functionality. For instance, lets say an application allows you to fetch an image from a specified URL to display it back onto the page. If the application doesn’t properly validate the URL it is provided, an attacker can craft a URL that will cause the application to send a request to a local or internal resource…