Once done, attackers leverage this data to exploit the organization or victims through ransomware attacks and the threat of exposing personally identifying data. Data breach – Attackers use compromised sessions and logins to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data of a vulnerable server.Identity theft – A standard attack pattern involves gaining access to a client’s login credentials, which allows them to access multiple accounts illegally, escalate privileges and orchestrate a full-blown attack.For example, they may make purchases using active session information, transfer funds on behalf of the victim, or even access an intellectual property. Financial fraud – Once attackers take hold of financial systems, they can perform transactions while impersonating a legitimate user.Some potential impacts of a successful attack 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. The malware may perform session sniffing, grab the temporary session cookie, and send it to the hacker for further exploitation. Malware – Attackers target web applications with vulnerable servers to install malware that executes on a user’s device to hijack the session.Insufficient encryption – Without network traffic encryption beyond initial authentication, hackers exploit the TLS layer to sniff session packets and intercept cookies transmitted between clients and servers.Hackers usually use automated tools to guess these session tokens, thereby leveraging such vulnerabilities as one of the most common methods of successful session hijacking. Predictable session token – Some application session tokens and attribute in session cookies typically contain sensitive data that associates the server with the user’s credentials.Vulnerable components – Failure to build and maintain adequate security controls in source code and third-party integrations makes applications more susceptible to phishing attempts and man-in-the-middle attacks.As such, the risks within an application stack that account for a wider proportion of such attacks include: In most cases, session hijacking attacks are avoidable. 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. 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. To achieve this, attackers steal a user’s session ID and then apply it to their browser, tricking the application servers into authenticating users. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Session hijacking attack is a highly prevalent attack resulting in identity theft, data breaches, and financial fraud.
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