This article analyzes new attack classes against passwordless authentication, focusing on Google’s synced passkey ecosystem and the Cloud Authenticator used by desktop clients. The attacks demonstrate how malware on a compromised endpoint can misuse onboarding, recovery and device trust workflows to take over passkey-protected accounts. Palo Alto Unit 42 shows how an attacker can authenticate without user interaction, bypass user verification requirements and extract all synced passkey private keys.
After decades of breaches and billions in losses, the attack vectors that defined the era of passwords and shared secrets are finally starting to fade. Passkeys replace passwords and traditional multi-factor authentication (MFA) with public-key cryptography, decreasing entire classes of attacks that have dominated the threat landscape for years.
With no shared secret to steal, reuse or phish, many of an attacker’s most reliable tools are becoming obsolete. This represents a significant disruption for the credential theft market.
Read more…
Source: Palo Alto Unit 42
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Alleged breached data of Airport and Aviation Services Sri Lanka surfaces online
July 10, 2024
A recent post on the notorious cybercrime forum BreachForums claims that the Airport and Aviation Services Sri Lanka (AASL) has suffered a data breach. According to the post, the breached data contains approximately 7,083 records that include names, NICs, emails, passport numbers, and other sensitive data. Blurred screenshot of post alleging Airport and Aviation Services Sri ...
- Reeling in DarkGate Malware Attacks from the Beach
July 10, 2024
Last year, the number of malware attacks worldwide reached 6.08 billion. That’s a 10% increase compared with 2022. Why are cybercriminals developing so much malware? Because it is a vital tool to help them infiltrate businesses, networks or specific computers to steal or destroy sensitive data. or destroy sensitive data. There are many types of malware ...
- Resurrecting Internet Explorer: Threat Actors Using Zero-Day Tricks In Internet Shortcut File To Lure Victims (CVE-2024-38112)
July 9, 2024
Check Point Research recently discovered that threat actors have been using novel (or previously unknown) tricks to lure Windows users for remote code execution. Specifically, the attackers used special Windows Internet Shortcut files (.url extension name), which, when clicked, would call the retired Internet Explorer (IE) to visit the attacker-controlled URL. An additional trick on IE ...
- July Patch Tuesday Unleashes a Torrent of Updates
July 9, 2024
With the information security industry’s two largest conferences (Black Hat Briefings and Def Con) set to happen in less than a month, Microsoft pulled out all the stops and, for July, nearly tripled the number of patches they released in June for problems discovered in Windows, Office, and software that runs under various server and ...
- APT40 Advisory PRC MSS tradecraft in action
July 8, 2024
The PRC state-sponsored cyber group has previously targeted organisationsin various countries, including Australia and the United States, and the techniques highlighted below are regularly used by other PRC state-sponsored actors globally. Therefore, the authoring agencies believe the group, and similar techniquesremain a threat to their countries’ networks as well. The authoring agencies assess that this group ...
- An In-Depth Look at Crypto-Crime in 2023 Part 1
July 8, 2024
Cryptocrime refers to any criminal activity involving the use of cryptocurrency. This can include theft, fraud, money laundering, and other illicit activities. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, operate on decentralized networks and are not issued or controlled by any central authority. This makes them an attractive target for criminals due to their anonymity and lack ...