What is session hijacking What are the steps to hijack a session What are the dangers posed by hijacking a session?
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How to Prevent Session HijackingIn this article:Session hijacking attack is a highly prevalent attack resulting in identity theft, data breaches, and financial fraud. A recent Verizon study found that approx 85% of breaches were caused due to the human element and were avoidable in the presence of robust security measures. In hijacking attacks, a hacker uploads malicious code to a site frequently
visited by the original user, then forces the victim’s machine to send the session cookie data to the hacker’s server. Once a user’s session ID is obtained, the attacker can masquerade as a legitimate user on any number of web services that successfully handshakes with the session ID. This article delves into how session hijacking attacks are commonly orchestrated, the risk & impacts of such attacks, and the best practices to prevent vulnerabilities that cause such attacks. Hackers orchestrate a session hijacking attack to gain unauthorized access to a user’s session and then assume and leverage the victim’s identity for deeper exploitation. As various services of an application create sessions to serve as a reference for a user’s initial authentication, an attack vector exploits such services to stay connected to the server for the duration of the current session. To achieve
this, attackers steal a user’s session ID and then apply it to their browser, tricking the application servers into authenticating users. Session hijacking is a form of man-in-the-middle attack that, if successful, grants the hacker full access to a legitimate user’s account and browser session. The technique has been around for decades and involves attackers stealing a valid session token from an active user and then accessing the user’s account. In most cases, session
hijacking attacks are avoidable. As such, the risks within an application stack that account for a wider proportion of such attacks include: The threat of a session hijacking attack can be severe, depending on the criticality of the application being accessed and the sensitivity of the data
compromised. Some potential impacts of a successful attack include: While there are multiple guidelines, tools, and best practices to secure applications, the changing threat landscape also continues to evolve. Over the year, hackers have devised numerous ways to gain access to an authorized user’s session, including detailed attack patterns
to orchestrate the hijacking without being noticed. Some session hijacking attack types include: Session Fixation AttacksIn this attack, hackers exploit session management vulnerabilities that allow users to sign in using existing session IDs. The attacker obtains the valid session ID, then tricks the user into logging in with it. Once the user session is established. In this case, the session hijacker fixes an active session on the user’s browser and then steals the session using known techniques. This can be further exploited using the meta attack pattern to send the session tokens within the URL field, cookie, or hidden form field. Session side jackingOne of the most common techniques leverages the lack of encryption between the remote server and the user. The session hijacker sniffs for unencrypted traffic in the network carrying session keys and tokens, captures the session tokens, and then uses them in targeted services masquerading as the victim. Cross-site scripting attacksSession hijackers typically target cross-site scripting vulnerabilities when orchestrating a session takeover. While doing so, hackers inject client-side scripts that capture session tokens. If the target server doesn’t set the HttpOnly attribute for session cookies, attackers can craft malicious Javascript code that obtains the session ID. A popular XSS attack method for session hijacking involves tricking users into clicking a malicious link to a known website that includes query parameters to send the user’s session key to the attacker’s web server. For example, the URL argument for this attack would look similar to:
In this case, the document.cookie argument reads the session cookie, then sends it to the hijacker’s website, relying on the location.href command. While this is one common attack method, real-world attacks are far more sophisticated and use techniques such as URL shortening and character encoding to hide the malicious script within the link. Brute ForceThis method involves the hackers guessing and determining the session ID on their own once they realize that the server uses predictable IDs. Some business systems create session IDs based on time, date, or the user’s IP address, making it easy to guess. Attackers use session IDs repeatedly from a known list that is only successful if the session management platform has known vulnerabilities or if the session IDs are made up of a few commonly used characters. How to prevent session hijacking attacks from happeningWhile attackers have used numerous tools and techniques that facilitate session hijacking, several security measures and best practices protect applications from such attacks. Some best practices to prevent session hijacking attacks include: Use HTTPSMake sure that web servers and applications, especially SSO systems, require using HTTPS everywhere. In addition, all internet communications should be encrypted to ensure sessions are secured at every stage. Every interaction, including sharing session keys, should be encrypted with TLS/SSL. Security teams should also use robust client-side defenses to protect client browsers and session cookies from XXS attacks. Install web session cookie management frameworksWeb frameworks simplify session management since they can generate more prolonged and random session cookies. Unfortunately, this makes session tokens, cookies, and IDs harder to predict and exploit since such frameworks rely on fuzzy algorithms to achieve randomness. Always rotate session keys after authenticationChanging the session key after a successful login makes it hard for a session hijacker to follow the user session even if they know the original key. Even if an attacker sends a phishing link the user clicks on, attackers can’t hijack sessions with self-generated keys in such setups. Employ intrusion detection and intrusion prevention systemsThese are tools that compare access patterns with known attack signatures. If there are malicious application usage patterns, these systems automatically block the request and send alerts to monitoring & security teams. You can find a lot of advantages when using a session hijacking tool to test your web application, as nowadays, manual testing can be quite expensive for businesses. Some of the benefits you could find are:
The Crashtest Security Suite is available as a free trial version. About Crashtest Security:Crashtest Security is a leading provider of automation software solutions for web developers and IT professionals. This automated tool scans your API/web app for common issues like missing CSRF tokens, weak authentication, SQL injection, cross-site scripting, etc. It then analyzes these issues to determine if they could lead to a session hijacking attack. FAQsWhy is Session Hijacking Attack Important for Business?A session hijacking attack is one of the most dangerous cyberattacks because it allows hackers to gain unauthorized access to a user’s account or data. This attack can be extremely costly since it may result in financial losses, reputation damage, legal liabilities, etc. Best practices ConclusionHere are a few ways to protect yourself from session hijacking:
Get a quick security audit of your website for free nowWe are analyzing https://example.com Scanning target https://example.com Scan status: In progress Scan target: http://example.com/laskdlaksd/12lklkasldkasada.a Date: 30/09/2022 Crashtest Security Suite will be checking for: Information disclosure Known vulnerabilities SSL misconfiguration Open ports Complete your scan request Please fill in your details receive the Security specialist is analyzing your scan report. Thank you. We have received your request. What are the steps to hijack session?Session Hijacking Process. Sniffing into Active Session: The attacker then finds an active session between the target and another machine and places himself between them. ... . Monitor: ... . Session Id Retrieval: ... . Stealing: ... . Take One of the Parties Offline: ... . Take over the Session and Maintain the Connection:. What are the dangers posed by session hijacking?Cyber criminals using session hijacking can completely take over a system, both at the network and application level. When hackers get access to an SSO, multiple applications are at risk. Cookie storage in SSO stores credentials used for all applications, including those with sensitive personal information.
What do you mean by session hijacking?Session hijacking is a technique used by hackers to gain access to a target's computer or online accounts. In a session hijacking attack, a hacker takes control of a user's browsing session to gain access to their personal information and passwords.
What are five methods of session hijacking?There are five key methods of Session hijacking: Session Fixation. Session Side Jacking. Cross Site Scripting.
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