CWE - 301 : Reflection Attack in an Authentication Protocol
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CWE Definition
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http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/301.html
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Number of vulnerabilities:
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0
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Description
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Simple authentication protocols are subject to reflection
attacks if a malicious user can use the target machine to impersonate a trusted
user.A mutual authentication protocol requires each party to respond to a
random challenge by the other party by encrypting it with a pre-shared key.
Often, however, such protocols employ the same pre-shared key for
communication with a number of different entities. A malicious user or an
attacker can easily compromise this protocol without possessing the correct
key by employing a reflection attack on the protocol. |
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Background Details
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Other Notes
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Reflection attacks capitalize on mutual authentication schemes in order to
trick the target into revealing the secret shared between it and another
valid user. In a basic mutual-authentication scheme, a secret is known to
both the valid user and the server; this allows them to authenticate. In
order that they may verify this shared secret without sending it plainly
over the wire, they utilize a Diffie-Hellman-style scheme in which they each
pick a value, then request the hash of that value as keyed by the shared
secret. In a reflection attack, the attacker claims to be a valid user and
requests the hash of a random value from the server. When the server returns
this value and requests its own value to be hashed, the attacker opens
another connection to the server. This time, the hash requested by the
attacker is the value which the server requested in the first connection.
When the server returns this hashed value, it is used in the first
connection, authenticating the attacker successfully as the impersonated
valid user. |
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not complete and may not be up to date!
You must visit
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and for more details.
