Identifying and Mitigating IDOR Vulnerabilities: A Multi-Platform Analysis and Future Directions

Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) vulnerabilities—commonly classified as Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA) or insecure access control issues—continue to rank among the most critical security flaws in contemporary web applications. This paper presents an expanded review of fifteen publicly disclosed IDOR cases collected from HackerOne and Bugcrowd between June 2023 and December 2023. Through real HTTP request/response samples and an extended statistical dataset, we illustrate how adversaries exploit insufficient server-side checks (e.g., by manipulating order_id, user_id) to gain unauthorized access or privileges. Our findings highlight consistent root causes, such as missing ownership validations and the overreliance on client-side parameters. In addition to proposing fundamental mitigations—including role-based access control (RBAC), short-lived tokens, and continuous security testing—we discuss machine learning (ML) and automation-based approaches for scaling IDOR detection in large codebases. By integrating insights from multiple bug bounty platforms, this work offers a comprehensive reference for developers, security engineers, and researchers endeavoring to defend web applications against IDOR vulnerabilities.