CVE-2026-3111 in Campus
Summary
by MITRE • 03/16/2026
Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) vulnerability in Campus Educativa specifically at the endpoint '/archivos/usuarios/[ID]/[username]/thumb_AAxAA.jpg' (translated as 80x90 and 40x45). Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an unauthenticated attacker to access the profile photos of all users via a manipulated URL, enabling them to collect user photos en masse. This could lead to these photos being used maliciously to impersonate identities, perform social engineering, link identities across platforms using facial recognition, or even carry out doxxing.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/19/2026
The identified vulnerability represents a critical insecure direct object reference flaw within the Campus Educativa platform that exposes user profile photographs to unauthorized access. This vulnerability specifically manifests at the endpoint structure '/archivos/usuarios/[ID]/[username]/thumb_AAxAA.jpg' where the application fails to implement proper access controls or authentication checks before serving user-specific media files. The flaw allows attackers to bypass normal authorization mechanisms by directly manipulating URL parameters to access profile images belonging to other users within the system.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and access control enforcement within the web application's file serving mechanism. When users request profile photographs through the specified endpoint, the system accepts the ID and username parameters directly from the URL without verifying whether the requesting user has legitimate authorization to access those particular files. This design flaw enables attackers to iterate through different user IDs and usernames to systematically harvest profile images from the platform's user base.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple privacy concerns, creating significant risks for user security and platform integrity. An attacker can systematically collect user profile photographs through automated scripts that manipulate the URL parameters, potentially amassing large datasets of user images. This capability enables malicious actors to engage in identity impersonation activities, conduct sophisticated social engineering campaigns, and perform cross-platform identity correlation using facial recognition technologies. The vulnerability particularly threatens user privacy and could facilitate doxxing operations where personal information is aggregated and made publicly available.
From a cybersecurity framework perspective, this vulnerability maps directly to CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 (Valid Accounts) as attackers can leverage the exposed profile information to build more convincing impersonation campaigns. The vulnerability also intersects with T1566 (Phishing) and T1595 (Active Scanning) as it enables automated reconnaissance and preparation for more advanced social engineering attacks. Organizations should implement robust access control mechanisms that validate user permissions before serving any user-specific content, including profile photographs, and establish proper input sanitization to prevent parameter manipulation attacks.
Mitigation strategies should include implementing mandatory authentication checks for all file access endpoints, establishing proper authorization controls that verify user permissions before serving content, and implementing rate limiting mechanisms to prevent automated harvesting of profile images. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing content delivery networks with appropriate access controls, regular security audits of file serving endpoints, and comprehensive user access logging to detect suspicious activities. The platform should also implement proper error handling that does not expose internal file structures or user identifiers in error messages, and establish automated monitoring systems to detect unusual access patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts.