Why a Payment Success URL Should Never Grant User Access
A success URL returned by a payment provider after checkout is not proof that a payment was actually completed, as browsers can freely revisit or manipulate such URLs. Developers who grant entitlements based on query parameters like 'paid=true' expose their apps to exploitation, since any user can craft a fraudulent URL manually. The secure approach treats the success page as purely informational, displaying a pending state without writing any access rights. Actual entitlements should only be created server-side after verifying a signed webhook event from the payment provider. A teaching repository called ShipTested demonstrates both the vulnerable and fixed implementations using dependency-free Node.js tests.
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