Mass Assignment Flaws in PHP and Laravel Let Attackers Escalate Privileges via Forms

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Mass assignment is a security vulnerability where web applications process user-submitted form fields without restricting which database attributes can be modified. An attacker can append extra fields — such as role=admin or is_admin=1 — to a standard HTTP request, potentially gaining elevated privileges or altering sensitive data like account balances. While Laravel's Eloquent ORM makes this risk more visible through methods like create() and update(), plain PHP applications are equally exposed when developers loop over $_POST data without filtering. The fix in both cases is an explicit allowlist that defines exactly which fields the application is permitted to accept and process. This article is the sixteenth in a DEV Community series on PHP and Laravel application security.

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Strong CSS architecture starts with defining what CSS should never do

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

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