Black Hat GraphQL

Written by hackers for hackers, this hands-on book teaches penetration testers how to identify vulnerabilities in apps that use GraphQL, a data query and manipulation language for APIs adopted by major companies like Facebook and GitHub.

Black Hat GraphQL is for anyone interested in learning how to break and protect GraphQL APIs with the aid of offensive security testing. Whether you’re a penetration tester, security analyst, or software engineer, you’ll learn how to attack GraphQL APIs, develop hardening procedures, build automated security testing into your development pipeline, and validate controls, all with no prior exposure to GraphQL required.

Following an introduction to core concepts, you’ll build your lab, explore the difference between GraphQL and REST APIs, run your first query, and learn how to create custom queries.

You’ll also learn how to:

• Use data collection and target mapping to learn about targets
• Defend APIs against denial-of-service attacks and exploit insecure configurations in GraphQL servers to gather information on hardened targets
• Impersonate users and take admin-level actions on a remote server
• Uncover injection-based vulnerabilities in servers, databases, and client browsers
• Exploit cross-site and server-side request forgery vulnerabilities, as well as cross-site WebSocket hijacking, to force a server to request sensitive information on your behalf
• Dissect vulnerability disclosure reports and review exploit code to reveal how vulnerabilities have impacted large companies

This comprehensive resource provides everything you need to defend GraphQL APIs and build secure applications. Think of it as your umbrella in a lightning storm.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: A Primer on GraphQL

Chapter 2: Setting Up a GraphQL Security Lab

Chapter 3: The GraphQL Attack Surface

Chapter 4: Reconnaissance

Chapter 5: Denial of Service

Chapter 6: Information Disclosure

Chapter 7: Authentication and Authorization Bypasses

Chapter 8: Injection

Chapter 9: Request Forgery and Hijacking

Chapter 10: Disclosed Vulnerabilities and Exploits

Appendix A: GraphQL API Testing Checklist

Appendix B: GraphQL Security Resources

About the Authors

Dolev Farhi is a security engineer and author with extensive experience leading security engineering teams in complex environments and scale in the Fintech and cyber security industries. Currently, he is the Principal Security Engineer at Wealthsimple, building defenses for one of the fastest Fintech companies in North America. Dolev has previously worked for several security firms and provided training for official Linux certification tracks. He is one of the founders of DEFCON Toronto (DC416), a popular Toronto-based hacker group. In his spare time, he enjoys researching vulnerabilities in IoT devices, participating and building CTF challenges and contributing exploits to Exploit-DB.

Nick Aleks is a leader in Toronto’s cybersecurity community and a distinguished and patented security engineer, speaker, and researcher. He is currently the Senior Director of Security at Wealthsimple, leads his own security firm, ASEC.IO, and is a Senior Advisory Board member for HackStudent, George Brown, and the University of Guelph’s Master of Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence programs. A founder of DEFCON Toronto, he specializes in offensive security and penetration testing and has over 10 years of experience hacking everything from websites, safes, locks, cars, drones, and even smart buildings.