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posted by mrpg on Thursday March 01 2018, @03:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the neverending-story dept.

A behavioral quirk in SAML libraries has left many single-sign-on (SSO) implementations vulnerable to abuse. It allows an attacker that has gained any authenticated access to trick the system into granting further access as a different user without knowledge of that user's password.

This could be used by an attacker who has compromised a low level limited access account to acquire access to third-party cloud services -- or it could be used by a malicious insider seeking access to reserved network areas (such as the payroll databases, or HR records).

The vulnerability was discovered by the research team of Duo Security, itself an SSO provider; and is described in a blog posted today. It affects many of the leading SSO providers, and probably affects the majority of proprietary company SSO developments.

[...] Not all SSO implementations are vulnerable to this glitch; but Duo has demonstrated that many are. All that is required from the attacker is a genuine account that he can 'modify' to his attack target, plus the relatively minor technical savvy to intercept and edit the SAML authentication as it passes through the browser.

Source: Widespread Vulnerability Found in Single-Sign-On Products


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 01 2018, @01:36PM (5 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday March 01 2018, @01:36PM (#645746)

    you're signing active content that can be modified, and modify itself, without invalidating the signature (this is a feature of XML signatures

    Calling that a signature is like calling a screen door a security layer.

    --
    Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Thursday March 01 2018, @01:44PM (4 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Thursday March 01 2018, @01:44PM (#645749)

    I don't think you understand the spirit of XML here. Having a signature that is still regarded as valid even if the signed content changes, and that can actually attack the signature-verification code (it's active content and it's being interpreted by a Turing machine) just shows how powerful and cool XML is. Primitive stuff like PGP and S/MIME can't do anything like this. This just goes to show that XML is much cooler than they are.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 01 2018, @04:04PM (3 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday March 01 2018, @04:04PM (#645819)

      This just goes to show that XML is much cooler than they are.

      And I say again: "Calling this a signature is like calling a screen door a security layer."

      Throughout the rest of the (oh, so not cool) industry, a signature means something: specifically that the content was created by the signer, and only the signer can make a valid signature.

      We could also start calling the water that condenses in clouds and falls from the sky "kittens" when it falls in the cool patio outside the hip coffee shop, 'cause kittens are cool too, right? Except that everyone else who calls something "kittens" means something very different than water falling from the sky.

      --
      Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @04:18PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @04:18PM (#645830)

        Apparently you missed the signature of sarcasm in the post you replied to.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:34PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @05:34PM (#645861)

          Well the internet isn't here for sarcasm, but I'll give you one guess what it is really for

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @07:03PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 01 2018, @07:03PM (#645913)

            Sarcasm?