WebApp Sec: RE: Article - A solution to phishing

["WebAppSecurity [Technicalinfo.net]" <webappsec () technicalinfo net>]

Image-based authentication is certainly an important part of helping with
customer confidence in the web-application they are accessing.

By allowing the user to view a known/selected/chosen/uploaded photo before
entering their second round of authentication information (e.g. Round One =
Surname and Online Reference number -- Round Two = Pin code and random parts
of their shared password) they can help be assured that they are at least
connected to their real web-application [yes, I know that any transparent
proxying  will defeat this - but MITM is difficult to prevent from the
client end].

I have been recommending this process to my financial clients for several
years now... And have seen some good implementations of it in Europe.

For some more information on this see
http://www.technicalinfo.net/papers/Phishing6.html#3.3.3.CustomWebApplicatio
nSecurity

Cheers,

Gunter

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Jevans [mailto:djevans () teros com] 
> Sent: 29 November 2004 22:55
> To: Michael Silk; webappsec () securityfocus com; mb () xato net
> Subject: RE: Article - A solution to phishing
>
>
> Imaged based mutual auth a la passmark can also authenticate 
> the site to the user.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Silk [mailto:michaelsilk () gmail com]
> Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 2:07 PM
> To: webappsec () securityfocus com; mb () xato net
> Subject: RE: Article - A solution to phishing
>
>  Hi Mark,
>  
>       Re "authenticating the site".
>       
>       I considered this option, and came up with a few ideas 
> - basically the site would post questions _AND_ answers to 
> the user before allowing him/her to enter their password.
>       
>       Example:
>               "Hi Jones, your surname is 'InTheFastLane'.".
>               "Your favourite movie is Rambo".
>               "Etc".
>  
>       This way, a phishing site couldn't possibly know the 
> answers so they would be incorrect.
>  
>       However, and obviously, it's can be MITM'd easily.
>  
>       I couldn't think of any other possibilities to ensure 
> the site is the correct site before the user enters there 
> password other then that which I proposed.
>
> -- Michael
>
>       
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Burnett [mailto:mb () xato net]
> Sent: Tuesday, 30 November 2004 3:15 AM
> To: webappsec () securityfocus com
> Subject: Re: Article - A solution to phishing
>
> I have been watching this thread with great interest and 
> although the basic concept that Michael describes is 
> interesting and might help reduce phishing, as others have 
> pointed out it is still vulnerable to a number of other 
> threats and heavily depends on a number of assumptions that 
> might not be realistic.
>
> Nevertheless, the fundamental issue with phishing is not that 
> an attacker can obtain your credentials, but that an attacker 
> can trick a user into entering credentials in a fake web 
> form. This is because it is easy to create a fake web site 
> that looks exactly like the original and it is easy to direct 
> the user to that site using deceptive links in e-mails, 
> browser vulnerabilities, DNS spoofing or poisoning, ARP 
> spoofing, stealth proxies, cross-site scripting, HOSTS file 
> modification, bookmark modification, trojans, social engineering, etc.
>
> Protecting authentication credentials is also a problem, but 
> the solution to phishing is more one of authenticating the 
> site rather than authenticating the user. First solving the 
> issue of authenticating the site makes it easier to solve the 
> problem of authenticating the user.
>
>
> Mark Burnett
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> Hacking the Code: ASP.NET Web Application Security 
> http://www.hackingthecode.com