Defense Against Stolen OAuth 2.0 Tokens
In the News
HTTP authentication tokens are an attractive target for hackers. Stealing an access token allows an adversary to compromise a user account without having to break passwords or two-factor authentication. In a [recent attack] on content creator Linus Media Group, an employee was tricked into executing a malicious email attachment that copied browsing data off their computer. Using the access tokens, the attacker was able to create YouTube livestreams, delete videos, and edit profile information.
It is difficult to detect and stop token-based attacks before damage is done. Modern authentication protocols like OAuth 2.0 are designed to offload security tasks to third-party providers. When additional safeguards are built into the system, they often incur significant infrastructure complexity and performance costs.