Cookie Poisoning
In cybersecurity, cookie poisoning refers to a malicious attack where an attacker modifies or forges the contents of a website's cookies. Cookies are small text files stored on a user's browser, often used to store session information, preferences, or authentication details. By altering these cookies, an attacker can potentially:
Impersonate a User: If a cookie contains session or authentication data, an attacker can modify it to impersonate the legitimate user, gaining unauthorized access to their account or sensitive information.
Bypass Security Measures: Cookies are sometimes used to track whether a user has passed certain security checks. By poisoning a cookie, an attacker might bypass these checks, gaining access to restricted areas of a website or application.
Manipulate Website Functionality: Cookies often store user preferences or settings. By manipulating these values, an attacker can alter the website's behavior or redirect the user to malicious sites.
Steal Sensitive Information: If cookies store sensitive data like credit card details or personal information, an attacker who poisons the cookie can maliciously extract this data.
How Cookie Poisoning Works:
Intercepting Cookies: Attackers can use various techniques, such as man-in-the-middle attacks, cross-site scripting (XSS), or session hijacking, to intercept and modify cookies before they are sent to the server.
Modifying Cookie Values: Attackers can alter the values stored in a cookie, such as changing a user ID, session ID, or authentication token.
Injecting Malicious Code: In some cases, attackers can inject malicious code into cookies, which can execute when the browser or server processes the cookie.
Preventing Cookie Poisoning:
Secure Cookies: Use cookies' "Secure" attribute to ensure they are only transmitted over HTTPS.
HttpOnly Cookies: Set the "HttpOnly" flag on cookies to prevent client-side scripts from accessing them.
Session Management: Implement robust session management mechanisms, such as unpredictable session IDs and expiring sessions after inactivity.
Input Validation: Validate and sanitize all user input to prevent attackers from injecting malicious code.
Web Application Firewall (WAF): Employ a WAF to detect and block standard cookie poisoning techniques.
Organizations can enhance their web application security by understanding and mitigating cookie poisoning attacks and protecting user data from unauthorized access and manipulation.
ThreatNG can significantly enhance an organization's ability to detect, assess, and mitigate the risk of cookie poisoning across its external attack surface, including third-party and supply chain assets. Here's how:
ThreatNG's Role in Preventing Cookie Poisoning:
Domain Intelligence Investigation Module:
Application Discovery: ThreatNG identifies all web applications on the organization's domains and subdomains, providing a comprehensive inventory of potential targets for cookie-poisoning attacks.
Exposed API Discovery: It uncovers exposed APIs, which can be vulnerable to attacks that lead to cookie poisoning if not adequately secured.
WAF Discovery and Identification: ThreatNG determines if a Web Application Firewall (WAF) exists. WAFs can help mitigate cookie poisoning by filtering malicious traffic and blocking known attack patterns.
Known Vulnerabilities: ThreatNG scans web applications for known vulnerabilities, including those related to session management and cookie handling, which can be exploited for cookie poisoning.
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility Security Rating: ThreatNG assesses web applications for vulnerabilities that allow attackers to hijack sessions or manipulate cookies, clearly indicating the organization's risk level.
Digital Risk Protection (DRP):
ThreatNG continuously monitors the internet for mentions of the organization's domains, subdomains, and IP addresses, alerting security teams to any discussions or activities that could indicate potential cookie-poisoning attacks.
ThreatNG provides an organization with a comprehensive security rating based on various factors, including its susceptibility to cookie-poisoning attacks. This allows organizations to prioritize remediation efforts.
Complementary Solutions and Handoff:
ThreatNG can integrate with various complementary solutions to enhance protection against cookie poisoning:
Web Application Firewalls (WAFs): ThreatNG can feed vulnerability information to WAFs, enabling them to block cookie poisoning attempts more effectively.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS): ThreatNG can alert IDPS to suspicious traffic patterns that could indicate cookie poisoning attacks.
Session Management Solutions: ThreatNG can integrate with session management solutions to ensure strong session ID generation, expiration, and renewal mechanisms, making it harder for attackers to hijack sessions and poison cookies.
The handoff between ThreatNG and complementary solutions can occur through APIs, syslog feeds, or other integration mechanisms. For example, when ThreatNG discovers a vulnerability, it can automatically create a ticket in a ticketing system or send an alert to a SIEM system.
Detailed Workflow Example:
Discovery: ThreatNG continuously scans the organization's external attack surface, including third-party and supply chain assets.
Vulnerability Identification: ThreatNG identifies a web application with a high Web Application Hijack Susceptibility Security Rating due to weak session management.
Cookie Poisoning Risk Assessment: ThreatNG assesses the application for potential cookie poisoning vulnerabilities that could be exploited if an attacker successfully hijacks a session.
Alerting: ThreatNG sends an alert to the security team detailing the vulnerability and the associated risk of cookie poisoning attacks.
Mitigation: The security team investigates the alert and takes action to remediate the vulnerability, such as implementing more robust session management controls, enabling secure and HttpOnly flags for cookies, or deploying a WAF with specific cookie poisoning protection rules.
Verification: ThreatNG re-scans the application to verify that the vulnerability has been remediated and that the Web Application Hijack Susceptibility Security Rating has improved.
By leveraging ThreatNG's comprehensive capabilities, organizations can proactively identify and address cookie poisoning risks across their entire external attack surface, significantly reducing the likelihood of successful attacks and protecting user data and sessions from unauthorized access and manipulation.
