A mechanism used to support
single sign-on in Windows-based systems could be used by
hackers to cause damage across company systems, a UK security
expert has warned.
Luke Jennings, a consultant at
MWR InfoSecurity,
will present a paper on the risk at next week's DefCon conference
in Las Vegas.
Secondary attacks on systems that use a single sign-on mechanism
to log in users, such as Windows, are a growing trend, because a
compromised PC can be used to easily access multiple
systems.
Single sign-on enables end-users to access secure applications
without having to remember several passwords. It is achieved in
Windows using an access token. Once the user logs in to a Windows
PC, applications that would previously require the user to log-in
again only need to check the access token.
Jennings found that the use of a token could be a problem if a
PC is compromised, as an attacker could use it to log into other
machines and applications. This is particularly significant if the
user is a system administrator with a high level of access to many
systems.
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