CNIT 129S: Securing

Web Applications

Ch 6: Attacking Authentication
Authentication Technologies

Over 90% of apps use name & password

 More Secure Methods
Two-factor authentication
(or more)

PIN from a token, SMS

message, or mobile app

In addition to a
password

Submitted through an
HTML form
Cryptographic Methods

Client-side SSL certificate

Smartcards

More expensive, higher overhead

 HTTP Authentication
Basic, Digest, and Windows-integrated

Rarely used on the Internet

More common in intranets, especially Windows

domains

So authenticated employees can easily

access secured resources
Third-Party Authentication
 Third-Party Authentication

Link Ch 6b
Third-Party Authentication
 Design Flaws
Bad Passwords
 Brute-Force Attacks
Strictly, "brute force" refers to
trying every possible combination
of characters

Very slow

In practice, attackers use lists of

common passwords

Defense: account lockout rules

after too many failed login attempts
 Poor Attempt Counters
Cookie containing failedlogins=1

Failed login counter held within the current

session

Attacker can just withhold the session cookie

to defeat this

Sometimes a page continues to provide

information about a password's correctness
even after account lockout
Insecure Lockout
Verbose Failure Messages

Friendly for legitimate users

But helpful for attackers

 Script to Find Phone #s
echo $1,`curl -d "customerEmailAddress=
$1" "[Link]
[Link]" -
silent| grep -Po '(?<=provided \()\d*'`

When you run

[Link] [Link]@[Link]
it will output a line of text that looks like:

[Link]@[Link],6782345678

Link Ch 6d
 Username Importance

Attacks that reveal valid usernames are called

"username enumeration"

Not as bad as finding a password, but still a

privacy intrusion

But could be used for social engineering

attacks, such as spearphishing emails
 Similar but Non-Identical
Error Messages

Any difference can be exploited; even response

time
 Vulnerable Transmission of
Credentials

Eavesdroppers may reside:

 HTTPS Risks
If credentials are sent unencrypted, the
eavesdropper's task is trivial, but even HTTPS
can't prevent these risks:

Credentials sent in the query string are likely

to appear in server logs, browser history, and
logs of reverse proxies

Many sites take credentials from a POST and

then redirect it (302) to another page with
credentials in the query string
 HTTPS Risks
Cookie risks:

Web apps may store credentials in cookies

Even if cookies cannot be decrypted, they can be

re-used

Many pages open a login page via HTTP and use an

HTTPS request in the form

This can be defeated by a man-in-the-middle

attack, like sslstrip
 Password Change
Functionality

Periodic password change mitigates the threat

of password compromise (a dubious claim)

Users need to change their passwords when

they believe them to be compromised
 Vulnerable Password
Change Systems
Reveal whether the requested username is valid

Allow unrestricted guesses of the "existing

password" field

Validate the "existing password" field before

comparing the "new password" and "confirm
new password" fields

So an attacker can test passwords without

making any actual change
Password Change Function
Identify the user

Validate "existing password"

Integrate with any account lockout features

Compare the new passwords with each other

and against password quality rules

Feed back any error conditions to the user

Often there are subtle logic flaws

 Forgotten Password
Functionality
Often the weakest link

Uses a secondary challenge, like "mother's

maiden name"

A small set of possible answers, can be brute-

forced

Often can be found from public information

 Forgotten Password
Functionality

Often users can write their own questions

Attackers can try a long list of usernames

Seeking a really weak question, like "Do I own

a boat?"

Password "Hints" are often obvious

 Forgotten Password
Functionality
Often the mechanism used to reset the
password after a correct challenge answer is
vulnerable

Some apps disclose the forgotten password to

the user, so an attacker can use the account
without the owner knowing

Some applications immediately let the user in

after the challenge--no password needed
 Forgotten Password
Functionality

Some apps allow the user to specify an email

for the password reset link at the time the
challenge is completed

Or use email from a hidden field or cookie

Some apps allow a password reset and don't

notify the user with an email
 "Remember Me"

Sometimes a simple persistent cookie, like

RememberUser=jsmith

Session=728

No need to actually log in, if username or

session ID can be guessed or found
 "Remember Me"

Even if the userid or session token is properly

encrypted, it can be stolen via XSS or by getting
access to a user's phone or PC
 User Impersonation
Sometimes help desk personnel or other special
accounts can impersonate users
This may have flaws like
Implemented with a "hidden" function lacking
proper access controls, such as
/admin/[Link]

A guessable session number

A fixed backdoor password
 Incomplete Validation

Some applications
truncate passwords
without telling users

Also strip unusual

characters

Link Ch 6e
 Nonunique Usernames
Rare but it happens

You may be able to create a new account with

the same username as an existing account

During registration or a password change

If the password also matches, you can detect

that from a different error messge
 Predictable Usernames

Automatically generated names like

User101, User102, ...

Predictable Initial Passwords

User accounts are create in large batches

All have the same initial password

 Insecure Distribution of
Credentials
Passwords sent by email, SMS, etc.

Users may never change those credentials

Activation URLs may be predictable

Some apps email the new password to the user

after each password change
Implementation Flaws
 Fail-Open Login

Blank or invalid username may cause an

exception in the login routine

Or very long or short values

Or letters where numbers are expected...

And allow the user in

 Multistage Login

Enter username and password

Enter specific digits from a PIN (a CAPTCHA)

Enter value displayed on a token

Multistage Login Defects

May allow user to skip steps

May trust data that passes step one, but let user
change it, so invaid or locked-out accounts
remain available

May assume that the same username applies to

all three stages but not verify this
Multistage Login Defects

May use a randomly-chosen question to verify

the user

But let the attacker alter that question in a

hidden HTML field or cookie

Or allow many requests, so attacker can choose

an easy question
Insecure Credential Storage

Plaintext passwords in database

Hashed with MD5 or SHA-1, easily cracked

Securing Authentication
Considerations

How critical is security?

Will users tolerate inconvenient controls?

Cost of supporting a user-unfriendly system

Cost of alternatives, compare to revenue

generated or value of assets
 Strong Credentials
Minimum password length, requiring alphabetical,
numeric, and typographic characters
Avoiding dictionary words, password same as
username, re-use of old passwords
Usernames should be unique
Automatically generated usernames or passwords
should be long and random, so they cannot be
guessed or predicted

Allow users to set strong passwords

 Handle Credentials
Secretively
Protect then when created, stored, and transmitted

Use well-established cryptography like SSL, not

custom methods

Whole login page should be HTTPS, not just the

login button

Use POST rathern than GET

Don't put credentials in URL parameters or cookies

 Handle Credentials
Secretively

Don't transmit credentials back to the client,

even in parameters to a redirect

Securely hash credentials on the server

 Hashing

Password hashes must be salted and stretched

Salt: add random bytes to the password before

hashing it

Stretched: many rounds of hashing (Kali Linux 2

uses 5000 rounds of SHA-512)
 Handle Credentials
Secretively
Client-side "remember me" functionality should
remember only nonsecret items such as
usernames

If you allow users to store passwords locally,

they should be reversibly encrypted with a key
known only to the server

And make sure there are no XSS

vulnerabilities
 Handle Credentials
Secretively
Force users to change passwords periodically

Credentials for new users should be sent as

securely as possible and time-limited; force
password change on first login

Capture some login information with drop-down

lists instead of text fields, to defeat keyloggers
 Validate Credentials
Properly

Validate entire credential, with case sensitivity

Terminate the session on any exception

Review authentication logic and code

Strictly control user impersonation

 Multistage Login
All data about progress and the results of
previous validation tasks should be held in the
server-side session object and never available
to the client

No item of information should be submitted

more than once by the user

No means for the user to modify data after

submission
 Multistage Login

The first task at every stage should be to verify

that all prior stages have been correctly
completed

Always proceed through all stages, even if the

first stage fails--don't give attacker any
information about which stage failed
Prevent Information Leakage
All authentication failures should use the same
code to produce the same error message

To avoid subtle differences that leak

information

Account lockout can be used for username

enumeration

Login attempts with invalid usernames should

lead to the same error messages as valid ones
 Self-Registration

Allowing users to choose usernames permits

username enumeration. Better methods:

Generate unique, unpredictable usernames

Use e-mail addresses as usernames and

require the user to receive and use an email
message
Prevent Brute-Force Attacks
At login, password change, recover lost password, etc.

Using unpredictable usernames and preventing their

enumeration makes brute-force attacks more difficult

High-security apps like banks disable an account after

several failed logins

Account holder must do something out-of-band to

re-activate account, like phone customer support
and answer security questions

A 30-minute delay is friendlier and cheaper

Prevent Brute-Force Attacks
Consider this type of attack

Use many different usernames with the same

password, such as "password"

Defenses: strong password rules, CAPTCHA

 Password Change
No way to change username

Require user to enter the old password

Require new password twice (to prevent

mistakes)

Same error message for all failures

Users should be notified out-of-band (such as

via email) that the password has been changed
 Account Recovery

For security-critical apps, require account

recovery out-of-band

Don't use "password hints"

Email a unique, time-limited, unguessable,

single-use recovery URL
 Account Recovery

Challenge questions

Don't let users write their own questions

Don't use questions with low-entropy

answers, such as "your favorite color"
Log, Monitor, and Notify
Log all authentication-related events

Protect logs from unauthorized access

Anomalies such as brute-force attacks should

trigger IDS alerts

Notify users out-of-band of any critical security

events, such as password changes

Notify users in-band of frequent security events,

such as time and source IP of the last login