User Enumeration Audit

🔴 CRITICAL: PROGRESSIVE FILE UPDATES REQUIRED

You MUST write to context files AS YOU GO, not just at the end.

• Write to .sb-pentest-context.json IMMEDIATELY after each endpoint tested
• Log to .sb-pentest-audit.log BEFORE and AFTER each test
• DO NOT wait until the skill completes to update files
• If the skill crashes or is interrupted, all prior findings must already be saved

This is not optional. Failure to write progressively is a critical error.

This skill tests for user enumeration vulnerabilities in authentication flows.

When to Use This Skill

• To check if user existence can be detected
• To test login, signup, and recovery flows for information leakage
• As part of authentication security audit
• Before production deployment

Prerequisites

• Supabase URL and anon key available
• Auth endpoints accessible

What is User Enumeration?

User enumeration occurs when an application reveals whether a user account exists through:

Why It Matters

Tests Performed

Usage

Basic Enumeration Test

Test for user enumeration vulnerabilities

Test Specific Endpoint

Test login endpoint for user enumeration

Output Format

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 USER ENUMERATION AUDIT
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

 Project: abc123def.supabase.co

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Signup Endpoint (/auth/v1/signup)
 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

 Test: POST with known existing email
 Response for existing: "User already registered"
 Response for new email: User object returned

 Status: 🟠 P2 - ENUMERABLE

 The response clearly indicates if an email is registered.

 Exploitation:
 ```bash
 curl -X POST https://abc123def.supabase.co/auth/v1/signup \
   -H "apikey: [anon-key]" \
   -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
   -d '{"email": "target@example.com", "password": "test123"}'

 # If user exists: {"msg": "User already registered"}
 # If new user: User created or confirmation needed

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Login Endpoint (/auth/v1/token) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Test: POST with different email scenarios

Existing email, wrong password: ├── Response: {“error”: “Invalid login credentials”} ├── Time: 245ms └── Code: 400

Non-existing email: ├── Response: {“error”: “Invalid login credentials”} ├── Time: 52ms ← Significantly faster! └── Code: 400

Status: 🟠 P2 – ENUMERABLE VIA TIMING

Although the error message is the same, the response time is noticeably different: ├── Existing user: ~200-300ms (password hashing) └── Non-existing: ~50-100ms (no hash check)

Timing Attack PoC:

import requests
import time

def check_user(email):
    start = time.time()
    requests.post(
        'https://abc123def.supabase.co/auth/v1/token',
        params={'grant_type': 'password'},
        json={'email': email, 'password': 'wrong'},
        headers={'apikey': '[anon-key]'}
    )
    elapsed = time.time() - start
    return elapsed > 0.15  # Threshold

exists = check_user('target@example.com')

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Password Recovery (/auth/v1/recover) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Test: POST recovery request for different emails

Existing email: ├── Response: {“message”: “Password recovery email sent”} ├── Time: 1250ms (email actually sent) └── Code: 200

Non-existing email: ├── Response: {“message”: “Password recovery email sent”} ├── Time: 85ms ← Much faster (no email sent) └── Code: 200

Status: 🟠 P2 – ENUMERABLE VIA TIMING

Same message, but timing reveals existence. Existing users trigger actual email sending (~1s+).

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Magic Link / OTP (/auth/v1/otp) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Test: Request OTP for different emails

Existing email: ├── Response: {“message”: “OTP sent”} ├── Time: 1180ms └── Code: 200

Non-existing email: ├── Response: {“error”: “User not found”} ├── Time: 95ms └── Code: 400

Status: 🔴 P1 – DIRECTLY ENUMERABLE

The error message explicitly states user doesn’t exist.

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Summary ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Endpoints Tested: 4 Enumerable: 4 (100%)

Vulnerability Severity: ├── 🔴 P1: OTP endpoint (explicit message) ├── 🟠 P2: Signup endpoint (explicit message) ├── 🟠 P2: Login endpoint (timing attack) └── 🟠 P2: Recovery endpoint (timing attack)

Overall User Enumeration Risk: HIGH

An attacker can determine if any email address has an account in your application.

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Mitigation Recommendations ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

1. CONSISTENT RESPONSES Return identical messages for all scenarios: “If an account exists, you will receive an email”

2. CONSISTENT TIMING Add artificial delay to normalize response times:

   const MIN_RESPONSE_TIME = 1000; // 1 second
   const start = Date.now();
   // ... perform auth operation ...
   const elapsed = Date.now() - start;
   await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r,
     Math.max(0, MIN_RESPONSE_TIME - elapsed)
   ));
   return response;
   

3. RATE LIMITING Already enabled: 3/hour per IP Consider per-email rate limiting too.

4. CAPTCHA Add CAPTCHA for repeated attempts:

   • After 3 failed logins
   • For password recovery
   • For signup

5. MONITORING Alert on enumeration patterns:

   • Many requests with different emails
   • Sequential email patterns (user1@, user2@, …)

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

## Timing Analysis

The skill measures response times to detect timing-based enumeration:

Existing user: ├── Password hash verification: ~200-300ms ├── Email sending: ~1000-2000ms └── Database lookup: ~5-20ms

Non-existing user: ├── No hash verification: 0ms ├── No email sending: 0ms └── Database lookup: ~5-20ms (not found)

Threshold detection:
- Difference > 100ms: Possible timing leak
- Difference > 500ms: Definite timing leak

## Context Output

```json
{
  "user_enumeration": {
    "timestamp": "2025-01-31T13:30:00Z",
    "endpoints_tested": 4,
    "vulnerabilities": [
      {
        "endpoint": "/auth/v1/otp",
        "severity": "P1",
        "type": "explicit_message",
        "existing_response": "OTP sent",
        "missing_response": "User not found"
      },
      {
        "endpoint": "/auth/v1/signup",
        "severity": "P2",
        "type": "explicit_message",
        "existing_response": "User already registered",
        "missing_response": "User created"
      },
      {
        "endpoint": "/auth/v1/token",
        "severity": "P2",
        "type": "timing_attack",
        "existing_time_ms": 245,
        "missing_time_ms": 52
      },
      {
        "endpoint": "/auth/v1/recover",
        "severity": "P2",
        "type": "timing_attack",
        "existing_time_ms": 1250,
        "missing_time_ms": 85
      }
    ]
  }
}

Mitigation Code Examples

Consistent Response Time

// Edge Function with normalized timing
const MIN_RESPONSE_TIME = 1500; // 1.5 seconds

Deno.serve(async (req) => {
  const start = Date.now();

  try {
    // Perform actual auth operation
    const result = await handleAuth(req);

    // Normalize response time
    const elapsed = Date.now() - start;
    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r,
      Math.max(0, MIN_RESPONSE_TIME - elapsed)
    ));

    return new Response(JSON.stringify(result));
  } catch (error) {
    // Same timing for errors
    const elapsed = Date.now() - start;
    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r,
      Math.max(0, MIN_RESPONSE_TIME - elapsed)
    ));

    // Generic error message
    return new Response(JSON.stringify({
      message: "Check your email if you have an account"
    }));
  }
});

Generic Error Messages

// Don't reveal user existence
async function requestPasswordReset(email: string) {
  // Always return success message
  const response = {
    message: "If an account with that email exists, " +
             "you will receive a password reset link."
  };

  // Perform actual reset in background (don't await)
  supabase.auth.resetPasswordForEmail(email).catch(() => {});

  return response;
}

MANDATORY: Progressive Context File Updates

⚠️ This skill MUST update tracking files PROGRESSIVELY during execution, NOT just at the end.

Critical Rule: Write As You Go

DO NOT batch all writes at the end. Instead:

1. Before testing each endpoint → Log the action to .sb-pentest-audit.log
2. After each timing measurement → Immediately update .sb-pentest-context.json
3. After each enumeration vector found → Log the finding immediately

This ensures that if the skill is interrupted, crashes, or times out, all findings up to that point are preserved.

Required Actions (Progressive)

1. Update .sb-pentest-context.json with results:

   {
     "user_enumeration": {
       "timestamp": "...",
       "endpoints_tested": 4,
       "vulnerabilities": [ ... ]
     }
   }
   

2. Log to .sb-pentest-audit.log:

   [TIMESTAMP] [supabase-audit-auth-users] [START] Testing user enumeration
   [TIMESTAMP] [supabase-audit-auth-users] [FINDING] P1: OTP endpoint enumerable
   [TIMESTAMP] [supabase-audit-auth-users] [CONTEXT_UPDATED] .sb-pentest-context.json updated
   

3. If files don’t exist, create them before writing.

FAILURE TO UPDATE CONTEXT FILES IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

MANDATORY: Evidence Collection

📁 Evidence Directory: .sb-pentest-evidence/05-auth-audit/enumeration-tests/

Evidence Files to Create

Evidence Format

{
  "evidence_id": "AUTH-ENUM-001",
  "timestamp": "2025-01-31T11:00:00Z",
  "category": "auth-audit",
  "type": "user_enumeration",

  "tests": [
    {
      "endpoint": "/auth/v1/token",
      "test_type": "timing_attack",
      "severity": "P2",

      "existing_user_test": {
        "email": "[KNOWN_EXISTING]@example.com",
        "response_time_ms": 245,
        "response": {"error": "Invalid login credentials"}
      },

      "nonexisting_user_test": {
        "email": "definitely-not-exists@example.com",
        "response_time_ms": 52,
        "response": {"error": "Invalid login credentials"}
      },

      "timing_difference_ms": 193,
      "result": "ENUMERABLE",
      "impact": "Can determine if email has account via timing"
    },
    {
      "endpoint": "/auth/v1/otp",
      "test_type": "explicit_message",
      "severity": "P1",

      "existing_user_response": {"message": "OTP sent"},
      "nonexisting_user_response": {"error": "User not found"},

      "result": "ENUMERABLE",
      "impact": "Error message explicitly reveals user existence"
    }
  ],

  "curl_commands": [
    "# Timing test - existing user\ntime curl -X POST '$URL/auth/v1/token?grant_type=password' -H 'apikey: $ANON_KEY' -d '{\"email\": \"existing@example.com\", \"password\": \"wrong\"}'",
    "# Timing test - non-existing user\ntime curl -X POST '$URL/auth/v1/token?grant_type=password' -H 'apikey: $ANON_KEY' -d '{\"email\": \"nonexistent@example.com\", \"password\": \"wrong\"}'"
  ]
}

Related Skills

• supabase-audit-auth-config — Full auth configuration
• supabase-audit-auth-signup — Signup flow testing
• supabase-report — Include in final report