Hey everyone! I work in the trucking industry and often use online loadboards to book freight loads. I've run into an interesting dilemma: high-paying loads get snatched up quickly, and it seems like companies with better ratings get to see them first. However, I've noticed that one specific company is somehow managing to access and book these premium loads using their low-rated accounts. They seem to use developer tools, like Chrome's F12, to find ways around the system, allowing them to imitate actions normally reserved for higher-rated accounts. I'm curious if anyone can break this down for me in simple terms—what methods could they be using to achieve this? Is it API abuse, a security flaw, or maybe something related to session tokens or cookies? I'm just trying to understand the possibilities here, not asking anyone to do anything illegal!
3 Answers
I think you're spot on with the client-side filtering theory. If everything is being done client-side, then users can see all available contracts without proper restrictions in place. What they likely have is a system that just sends the entire list of loads to the user’s browser, allowing them to click and book what may technically be off-limits for their account. This combination of frontend oversight and backend security flaws could definitely facilitate this kind of behavior, and it’s certainly not best practice.
The crazy part is, this may not even violate any terms of service, just because of the way it’s implemented. It’s all on how well the system is designed.
You’ve nailed most of the possibilities here, but the critical issue seems to be that users are allowed to book loads they shouldn’t have access to. This points directly to backend permissions not being enforced properly. Being able to view these loads might be a less serious flaw but allowing bookings without correct checks in place is definitely a major issue that needs addressing.
Yes, that’s where the real security breakdown is. If they can book without checks, that’s huge.
You’re right—starting with backend permission audits is a must to remedy this situation.
This sounds like it could be a permissions issue. It’s likely that while the loadboard filters out the 'good' loads for display, they aren't actually blocking access to them based on account status. If someone can get the ID or URL for a top load, they could just access it directly, regardless of their account's rating. Sometimes it's all frontend filtering, and these IDs might be included in responses that lower-rated accounts can still access. This tends to happen when developers are under pressure and focus more on appearance than actual security enforcement.
Exactly! The load IDs are usually long strings with letters and numbers, and if you can find those, it's game over for restrictions.
I've definitely seen this before. When frontend and backend teams aren't in sync, you can end up with this kind of oversight where the frontend hides things instead of enforcing proper security checks.
Yes! They might be leveraging the fact that the system is not secure to just grab whatever they please.