Insights

Inspectiv Insights - Lessons from Recently Found Vulnerabilities

Written by Inspectiv Team | Feb 24, 2026 6:00:06 PM

Every day, Inspectiv uncovers brand-new vulnerabilities across diverse environments. These findings aren’t theoretical—they’re active weaknesses that attackers would happily exploit today. By learning from fresh discoveries as they emerge, you can harden your systems before adversaries notice.

Below are three high-impact issues recently identified across customer environments, along with the practical defenses your teams can apply immediately. Note some details have been changed for educational purposes.

1 Short, Predictable IDs Enable Enumeration Attacks

Attackers love predictability. When object identifiers are short, sequential, or guessable, even limited authentication can accidentally grant access to data that should be off-limits. Enumeration becomes trivial—and once attackers find one valid object ID, they can often harvest many more.

Why it matters

IDOR attacks continue to be one of the most common (and devastating) real-world application flaws. These patterns were observed just this week, demonstrating how often predictable IDs slip into production systems unnoticed.

How to prevent this

  • Use high-entropy object IDs
    Replace sequential IDs with long, unguessable identifiers. Add randomness and salt to eliminate predictability.
  • Enforce per-object access controls
    Validate that every requested object is authorized for the specific logged-in user or tenant.
  • Scope database queries
    Query only within the user’s ownership context. Avoid “global” lookups that allow cross-tenant access.
  • Test for unauthorized access
    Add IDOR checks to your standard authorization test suite.

Finally, here’s a sample HTTP request that should help avoid this kind of attack.

POST /directory1/directory2/action/{numerical-ID-1}/sample HTTP/2 Host: sample-app.com

{"id":{numerical-ID-2}}

Note each object should be checked for proper ACLs. And of course numerical incrementing should not result in a successful result.

2 Default Dev Tools Left Enabled in Production

Attackers always look for shortcuts—and default framework features often hand them over on a silver platter. One recent finding involved an exposed heapdump endpoint, providing deep insight into the application’s internal state.

Why it matters

Heapdumps can contain secrets, credentials, tokens, or sensitive user data. If an attacker can download one without authentication, they gain a treasure map of your application’s internals. This comes up for Go, Java JMX, and Spring Boot Actuator, all of which ship with some level of default heapdumps in current or near-current versions.

How to prevent this

    • Never deploy with default configurations Production systems must explicitly disable dev-oriented features.
    • Disable sensitive endpoints Here are some risky sample endpoints below, using Actuator as the example.  Typically, these endpoints should be disabled, and not be accessible.
      https://sampleapp.com/hidden-endpoint/actuator/heapdump
      https://sampleapp.com/hidden-endpoint/actuator/configprops
      https://sampleapp.com/hidden-endpoint/actuator/loggers
    • Here's some technology-specific tips:
Spring Boot Actuator

In your application.properties or yaml equivalent make sure you set the following

management.endpoint.heapdump.enabled=false
management.endpoint.threaddump.enabled=false
management.endpoint.configprops.enabled=false

Go

Disable importing pprof in production builds

//go:build dev
package main
import _ "net/http/pprof"

If you must have it then ensure it can only be bound to a localhost on a unique port so you must have access to the host to reach it

go func() {

mux := http.NewServeMux()
mux.HandleFunc("/debug/pprof/", pprof.Index) // if using explicit handlers
_ = http.ListenAndServe("127.0.0.1:6060", mux)

}()


Java JMX

You should ensure you do not accidentally enable remote JMX

com.sun.management.jmxremote.port
com.sun.management.jmxremote.rmi.port

If you must use it then make sure to enable authentication, ssl, and have it bind to an internal address that requires you to have access to the host.

Node

Follows a similar pattern; you should never run --inspect on a public interface.

If you must allow it than make sure to bind to local and require access to the host via ssh port forwarding or private VPN and make sure the port is not exposed to the internet.

node --inspect=127.0.0.1:9229 app.js

  • If a diagnostic endpoint must remain enabled:
    • Require full authentication
    • Restrict access to internal networks or VPNs
    • Log all access attempts
    • Consider ways to re-engineer your processes to avoid publicly accessible diagnostic endpoints
  • Add configuration hardening to pre-deployment checklists
    Ensure no debugging or diagnostic endpoints are publicly exposed. Consider using Nuclei or queries to determine if anything was left open (Shodan and Censys are options).

3 Unauthenticated Admin Panel Exposure

This one is as bad as it sounds—an administrative interface accessible without authentication. Even limited admin functionality in the open can lead directly to account takeover, data manipulation, or full environment compromise.

Why it matters

Attackers routinely scan for common admin paths. If one answers without a login challenge, compromise becomes nearly instantaneous. This is a “red flag” vulnerability we still find far too often.

How to prevent this

  • Never expose administrative interfaces publicly
    Restrict them behind VPN, IP allowlists, or private networks.
  • Test every admin endpoint unauthenticated
    Don’t assume the presence of a login challenge—try accessing each URL directly.
  • If public exposure is unavoidable:
    • Change default credentials immediately
    • Use complex, non-standard usernames and passwords
    • Enforce MFA for all admin accounts
    • Test every user flow for bypass paths
  • Steps to reproduce:
    • Navigate to https://sampleapp123.com/admin/internal-panel/  - notice access is blocked here
    • Now, to bypass this block, visit https://sampleapp123.com/admin/#internal-panel/ instead and notice that full access is granted to the internal admin panel. This is achieved by appending “#” to the beginning of second directory.

Inspectiv Insights - How to Avoid Introducing Vulnerabilities that Others Missed