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Application & OT Security · Intermediate

Broken Function Level Authorization (BFLA)

API5:2023, failure to restrict access to administrative or privileged functions based on the caller's role.

Definition

Attackers call privileged endpoints directly, change HTTP methods (GET to DELETE) or guess admin paths. Mitigations include deny-by-default role checks on every function, consistent authorization middleware and testing every endpoint with low-privilege accounts.

Example

A regular user sends DELETE /api/users/77 and the server deletes the account.

Exam tip

BOLA is about which object; BFLA is about which function or action.

Related terms