How do you test for session hijacking in an authentication system?

O sequestro de sessão, também conhecido como sequestro de cookie, é um tipo de ataque cibernético que permite que um invasor assuma o controle de uma sessão de computador válida.

As mentioned in the article, the Session Token is, effectively, a secret held by the client to authenticate itself with the server - even when the user has no account on the application. Therefore, you should treat it as a secret: * Prevent its interception by using the strongest feasible encryption in transit * Ensure least access privileges (e.g. don't open your cookie to *, carve your domains as much as possible!) * Secure the web application that is supposed to access the secret. While you have (usually) no control on the client, you can run period pentests to ensure no XSS - and especially stored XSS - are possible within your app * Rotate it frequently, to reduce the time window an attacker will have to leverage that token.

Existem várias maneiras de testar para sequestro de sessão. Uma maneira é usar uma ferramenta de teste de penetração (pentest). As ferramentas de pentest podem ser usadas para simular ataques de sequestro de sessão e identificar vulnerabilidades que podem ser exploradas.

Best way to test for session hijacking & one effective method is to perform a session fixation attack. In this attack, an attacker attempts to set a user's session ID to a known value and see if the system allows the attacker to hijack the user's session. For example, the attacker generates a malicious link with a crafted session ID and tricks the victim into clicking it. If the system accepts the attacker's session ID, it indicates a session fixation vulnerability that could lead to session hijacking.

There are plenty of great vulnerability scanners out there, from BURP to Greenbone Assistant and everything in-between; but the core lesson is *do your pentests*. No excuses. If you are unsure on how to proceed, the OWASP guidelines are a sure way to set you off on the right foot: they have been thoroughly vetted by some of the best minds in the field, for a start, and have withstood the test of time by continuously evolving to tackle emerging new threats.

Para se proteger contra o sequestro de sessão, os usuários devem tomar as seguintes medidas: Use um firewall e um antivírus atualizados. Evite clicar em links ou abrir anexos de e-mails ou mensagens de texto desconhecidos. Use uma senha forte e única para cada conta. Mantenha seu sistema operacional e software atualizados.

You should always, always treat your session token as a secret: * Prevent its interception by using the strongest feasible encryption in transit - at least TLS v1.2, in January 2024! * Ensure least access privileges - if you run acme.com, you will not be needing access from google.com, so use wildcards sparingly! * Secure the application accessing the secret. While you will have usually have little or no control on the client, you can run periodic pentests to ensure no flagrant vulnerabilities are festering in your app * Rotate it frequently, to reduce the time window an attacker will have to leverage that token. Sure, if they have a persistent access to the client this is not going to fix anything, but you are limiting the damage.

Esteja ciente dos sinais de alerta. Se você notar algo incomum, como ser desconectado de uma sessão repentinamente ou receber uma mensagem de erro indicando que sua sessão expirou, pode ser um sinal de que você está sofrendo um ataque de sequestro de sessão.

Use um firewall e um antivírus atualizados. Um firewall pode ajudar a bloquear tentativas de acesso não autorizado à sua rede, e um antivírus pode ajudar a detectar e remover malware. Ative a autenticação multifatorial (MFA). A MFA adiciona uma camada extra de segurança à sua conta, exigindo que você insira um código de verificação além de sua senha. Monitore sua conta regularmente. Verifique seu histórico de login e transações para detectar qualquer atividade suspeita.

If you determine a session has been hijacked, you're in a tough spot - unless you've done your homework, so prevent rather than cure! Here's a rapid checklist for those panicked moments: 1. Assess: determine which, or at least how many, sessions have been hijacked. 2. Investigate: determine the mechanism leveraged to hijack the session. This may be -super- tricky to pull off, given session security is a shared responsibility! 3a. Mitigate: once you know which mechanism has been exploited, if you can, ensure it cannot be used again. 3b. Contain: while your team works on the mitigation, rotate all sessions that have been compromised. If your service is mission critical, *reach out to your customer first* !

All in all, sessions are a pretty difficult beast to tame. Are you sure you wouldn't be better off by using OAuth 2.0 ? Public clients can be *much* more easily managed, and by token scope differentiation, in the event of a token exfiltration, you'll be OK by simply rotating the tokens associated with that kind of client!