Network-AI ApprovalInbox Unauthenticated Cross-Origin Approval Bypass (GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj)

Detects GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj (CWE-862 Missing Authorization + CWE-352 CSRF via wildcard CORS): network-ai's ApprovalInbox HTTP server (lib/approval-inbox.ts) has no authentication of any kind and sets Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on every route, including the state-changing POST /approvals/:id/approve and /deny. ApprovalInbox is the network surface of the human-in-the-loop Approval Gate that gates high-risk operations (writes, shell commands, budget spend). Any caller that can reach the inbox port — a co-located process, an SSRF, a non-loopback remote client, or any website the operator visits in a browser via the wildcard CORS — can enumerate pending approvals (GET /approvals/) and approve them (POST /approvals/:id/approve) with no Authorization header, defeating the Approval Gate so a gated shell command executes without consent. Affected: network-ai <= 5.11.0. Detection covers: (a) a state-changing request to the approval control plane (/approvals/<id>/approve or /deny) with no auth context, matching the unauthenticated-client PoC shape; (b) an enumeration request to the approval queue (GET /approvals/) paired with the wildcard-CORS marker on the approval control plane; (c) explicit GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj / ApprovalInbox exploitation framing. The detection target is the request shape at the approval control plane — an unauthenticated approve/deny or enumerate call combined with the wildcard-CORS marker — which is the exact bypass primitive, caught before the gated action is released.

Response Actions

References

1. 01

   Unauthenticated POST to the approval control plane's approve/deny route — approvedBy defaults to anonymous/attacker with no Authorization header, matching the GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj PoC shape.

   field: contentop: regex
2. 02

   Enumeration of the pending-approvals queue paired with a wildcard Access-Control-Allow-Origin marker on the approval control plane — the cross-origin approval-inbox reconnaissance step.

   field: contentop: regex
3. 03

   Explicit GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj reference combined with ApprovalInbox exploitation language — attack framing in a skill or tool description.

   field: contentop: regex

Attack Examples (Rule Triggers)

Real-world attack payloads, sanitized and versioned alongside the rule as regression tests — so a future revision can't silently stop catching them.

Benign Examples (Rule Doesn't Trigger)

1. Authenticated operator approval with a Bearer token present

2. General question about the feature, not an exploitation request

3. Read-only health check on an unrelated route, no wildcard CORS marker present

4. Approve call description explicitly noting mTLS-gated internal deployment, no anonymous/attacker/no-auth marker

Known False Positive Contexts

• ▸Legitimate operator approving a pending action through an authenticated ApprovalInbox deployment that has been hardened with a reverse-proxy auth layer — expected to match; review confirms intent.
• ▸Security advisory or PR text quoting the GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj PoC.
• ▸A read-only status check against an endpoint that is not the approvals control plane.

title: "Network-AI ApprovalInbox Unauthenticated Cross-Origin Approval Bypass (GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj)"
id: ATR-2026-01981
rule_version: 1
status: draft
description: >
  Detects GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj (CWE-862 Missing Authorization + CWE-352 CSRF via
  wildcard CORS): network-ai's ApprovalInbox HTTP server (lib/approval-inbox.ts)
  has no authentication of any kind and sets Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on
  every route, including the state-changing POST /approvals/:id/approve and
  /deny. ApprovalInbox is the network surface of the human-in-the-loop Approval
  Gate that gates high-risk operations (writes, shell commands, budget spend).
  Any caller that can reach the inbox port — a co-located process, an SSRF, a
  non-loopback remote client, or any website the operator visits in a browser
  via the wildcard CORS — can enumerate pending approvals (GET /approvals/) and
  approve them (POST /approvals/:id/approve) with no Authorization header,
  defeating the Approval Gate so a gated shell command executes without
  consent. Affected: network-ai <= 5.11.0.

  Detection covers:
  (a) a state-changing request to the approval control plane
      (/approvals/<id>/approve or /deny) with no auth context, matching the
      unauthenticated-client PoC shape;
  (b) an enumeration request to the approval queue (GET /approvals/) paired
      with the wildcard-CORS marker on the approval control plane;
  (c) explicit GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj / ApprovalInbox exploitation framing.

  The detection target is the request shape at the approval control plane —
  an unauthenticated approve/deny or enumerate call combined with the
  wildcard-CORS marker — which is the exact bypass primitive, caught before
  the gated action is released.
author: "ATR Community"
date: "2026/07/04"
schema_version: "0.1"
detection_tier: pattern
maturity: test
severity: high

references:
  owasp_llm:
    - "LLM06:2025 - Excessive Agency"
  owasp_agentic:
    - "ASI03:2026 - Privilege Compromise"
    - "ASI06:2026 - Tool Misuse"
  mitre_atlas:
    - "AML.T0049 - Exploit Public-Facing Application"
  mitre_attack:
    - "T1068 - Exploitation for Privilege Escalation"
    - "T1190 - Exploit Public-Facing Application"
  ghsa:
    - "GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj"

metadata_provenance:
  mitre_atlas: human-reviewed
  owasp_llm: human-reviewed
  owasp_agentic: human-reviewed

compliance:
  eu_ai_act:
    - { article: "15", context: "Article 15 cybersecurity — runtime detection of unauthenticated cross-origin approval-gate bypass on network-ai's ApprovalInbox control plane.", strength: primary }
    - { article: "9",  context: "Article 9 risk management — runtime risk-treatment control for unauthenticated cross-origin approval-gate bypass.", strength: secondary }
  nist_ai_rmf:
    - { subcategory: "MP.5.1", context: "MAP 5.1 — adversarial input characterised/detected for unauthenticated cross-origin approval-gate bypass.", strength: primary }
    - { subcategory: "MG.3.2", context: "MANAGE 3.2 — runtime monitoring control for unauthenticated cross-origin approval-gate bypass.", strength: secondary }
  iso_42001:
    - { clause: "8.1", context: "Clause 8.1 operational control — detection of unauthenticated cross-origin approval-gate bypass payload.", strength: primary }
    - { clause: "8.3", context: "Clause 8.3 AI risk treatment — runtime detection as treatment control.", strength: secondary }

tags:
  category: privilege-escalation
  subcategory: unauth-approval-gate-bypass
  scan_target: tool_call
  confidence: high
  source: ghsa-disclosure
  vendor_sources: network-ai-ghsa-mxjx-28vx-xjjj

agent_source:
  type: tool_call
  framework:
    - network-ai
    - any
  provider:
    - any

detection:
  condition: any
  false_positives:
    - "Legitimate operator approving a pending action through an authenticated ApprovalInbox deployment that has been hardened with a reverse-proxy auth layer — expected to match; review confirms intent."
    - "Security advisory or PR text quoting the GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj PoC."
    - "A read-only status check against an endpoint that is not the approvals control plane."
  conditions:
    - field: content
      operator: regex
      value: '(?i)POST\s+/approvals/[a-f0-9]+/(?:approve|deny)\b[\s\S]{0,300}(?:approvedBy["\x27]?\s*[:=]\s*["\x27]?(?:anonymous|attacker)|no\s+auth|Authorization["\x27]?\s*:\s*(?:null|undefined|absent|none))'
      description: >
        Unauthenticated POST to the approval control plane's approve/deny
        route — approvedBy defaults to anonymous/attacker with no
        Authorization header, matching the GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj PoC shape.
    - field: content
      operator: regex
      value: '(?i)GET\s+/approvals/\??(?:status=pending)?\b[\s\S]{0,200}Access-Control-Allow-Origin["\x27]?\s*:\s*["\x27]?\*'
      description: >
        Enumeration of the pending-approvals queue paired with a wildcard
        Access-Control-Allow-Origin marker on the approval control plane —
        the cross-origin approval-inbox reconnaissance step.
    - field: content
      operator: regex
      value: '(?i)GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj[\s\S]{0,200}(?:approval[- ]?inbox|network-ai|approve|CORS)'
      description: >
        Explicit GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj reference combined with ApprovalInbox
        exploitation language — attack framing in a skill or tool
        description.

response:
  actions:
    - alert
    - block_input
  message_template: >
    [ATR-2026-01981] HIGH: network-ai ApprovalInbox unauthenticated
    cross-origin approval bypass detected (GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj, CWE-862 +
    CWE-352). A caller with no Authorization header reached the approval
    control plane's approve/deny or enumeration route, defeating the
    human-in-the-loop Approval Gate. Block the request and upgrade network-ai
    past 5.11.0 / put ApprovalInbox behind an authenticated reverse proxy.

confidence: 78

wild_fp_rate: 0

test_cases:
  true_positives:
    - tool_description: "POST /approvals/07d6f277efe35ac1/approve {\"approvedBy\": \"anonymous\"}"
      expected: triggered
      description: "Unauthenticated approve call defaults approvedBy to anonymous — GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj PoC shape"
    - tool_description: "GET /approvals/?status=pending -> 200, Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *"
      expected: triggered
      description: "Cross-origin enumeration of pending approvals via wildcard CORS marker"
    - tool_description: "Exploiting GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj: the network-ai ApprovalInbox has no auth, so I can approve any pending action via CORS."
      expected: triggered
      description: "Explicit GHSA-mxjx-28vx-xjjj ApprovalInbox exploitation framing"
  true_negatives:
    - tool_description: "POST /approvals/07d6f277efe35ac1/approve {\"approvedBy\": \"ops-lead\", \"Authorization\": \"Bearer sk_live_abc123\"}"
      expected: not_triggered
      description: "Authenticated operator approval with a Bearer token present"
    - tool_description: "How does the ApprovalInbox approve/deny flow work in network-ai?"
      expected: not_triggered
      description: "General question about the feature, not an exploitation request"
    - tool_description: "GET /approvals/health"
      expected: not_triggered
      description: "Read-only health check on an unrelated route, no wildcard CORS marker present"
    - tool_description: "POST /approvals/07d6f277efe35ac1/approve {\"approvedBy\": \"ops-lead\"} behind an internal VPN with mTLS client cert required"
      expected: not_triggered
      description: "Approve call description explicitly noting mTLS-gated internal deployment, no anonymous/attacker/no-auth marker"