Cythera Cyber Security

Microsoft – Authenticated Account Takeover

A legitimate Microsoft session can be exploited to reset user passwords and disable MFA, enabling full account takeover. This highlights a significant authentication weakness within the Microsoft ecosystem.
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Introduction

Cythera identified a critical flaw in Microsoft's authentication flow that allows account takeover through a valid session, without needing the user's password. Alarmingly, the attack method also bypasses multi-factor authentication (MFA). This write-up details the vulnerability mechanics and potential risks. As of publication, Microsoft has not provided a patch or mitigation guidance.

The Vulnerability

With a valid, authenticated session, users can access mysignins.microsoft.com to manage account settings — including the ability to change their password. Cythera discovered that this session could be manipulated to reset a user’s password and disable multi-factor authentication (MFA), even without knowing the original password. This vulnerability enabled full account takeover if exploited.

Vulnerability Discovery

This is a medium-risk vulnerability because it allows full compromise of the integrity of the container but cannot access the filepath outside of this container. This would serve as an attack that an attacker can mount when gaining access to the exposed upload functionality, changing any configuration file inside the container, or uploading malicious scripts depending on the allow list of extensions allowed. The threat increases when file upload paths are shared among several key components of the system.

The issue

The core issue here is input validation and sanitisation while uploading. Statamic CMS does not enforce the use of commonly abused characters. So, it’s vulnerable to several path traversal attacks that may attempt to access files outside the restriction using directory traversal sequences like ../. This vulnerability is also exacerbated because the application relies on the filename in order to know where it should store it.

First, this vulnerability requires an attacker to gain access to a form or upload endpoint that eventually processes user supplied files. Once this has been achieved, the attacker will be in a position to construct a filename devised to traverse directories and deposit the file into a location of his or her choice. Functionality of this upload system is intended to be used by anyone, including unauthenticated users.

Proof of concept

The PoC can be found on YouTube here:
https://youtu.be/pK-KloyCIzw

How to fix

Upgrade to Statamic CMS 5.17.0 or greater.


Vulnerability disclosure timeline

  • 18/11/2024 – Issue Disclosed
  • 19/11/2024 – Vendor Responded
  • 19/11/2024 – CVE Assigned (CVE-2024-52600)
  • 25/11/2024 – Cythera Publishes Advisory


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