Shay Nahari, VP of CyberArk Red Team Services, discusses session-based threats and secure browsing. Topics include cookie theft dangers, expanding attack surfaces, and CyberArk Secure Browser's end-to-end identity control. Importance of least privilege, assume breach mindset, and protecting organizations from session-based attacks.
Post-authentication attacks target cookies, API keys, and certificates to bypass authentication.
Browsers lacking enterprise security controls pose challenges in designing identities and handling authentication.
Deep dives
The Vulnerability of Session-Based Authentication
Attackers have shifted focus to session-based authentication due to the widespread adoption of multifactor authentication (MFA), making traditional password-based authentication less vulnerable. Post-authentication processes like cookies, API keys, and machine certificates have become prime targets for attackers as stealing these can bypass the authentication stage entirely. The attractiveness of post-authentication attacks lies in the ability to exploit credentials obtained after authentication, giving attackers a direct route to sensitive systems.
The Challenge of Browsers in Identity Security
Browsers, designed for general consumer use, lacking security controls for enterprise needs, pose a fundamental challenge in designing identities around browser usage. As users across different sectors utilize the same browsers, vulnerabilities arise in how browsers handle authentication and authorization for various systems. The interface role of browsers in user-system interactions makes them prime targets for attacks due to their lack of fundamental security controls.
Protecting Against Session-Based Threats
Organizations can enhance protection against session-based attacks by implementing least privilege principles, limiting the lifespan and privileges of ephemeral identities to mitigate potential compromises. Adopting an 'assume breach' mindset helps in designing security layers to contain and minimize the impact of identity compromises. By anticipating potential compromises and designing security measures around these assumptions, organizations can strengthen their defense against session-based threats.
In this episode of Trust Issues, David welcomes back Shay Nahari, VP of CyberArk Red Team Services, to discuss the topic of secure browsing and session-based threats. They delve into the dangers of cookie theft, the expanding attack surface, and the importance of identity security. Shay explains how cookies sit post-authentication and how attackers can bypass the entire authentication process by stealing them. He also discusses how browsers have been designed for consumers, not for the enterprise, and how this creates a fundamental problem in the way we treat and design identities around the usage of browsers... until now. Shay introduces CyberArk Secure Browser, which eliminates cookies from the disk completely and provides an end-to-end control of the flow of identity. The conversation also touches on the expanding attack surface, new identities, and how organizations can protect themselves from session-based attacks. Shay emphasizes the importance of least privilege, monitoring, and an assume breach mindset.
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