Understanding Token Hijacking and How to Protect Your Business

In the ever-evolving world of cybersecurity, token hijacking has emerged as a significant threat, especially as businesses are increasingly adopting cloud services and remote work solutions. Understanding token hijacking and how to protect your business from it is crucial for maintaining security in the digital age.

Read: The 9 Best Practices for Small-to-Medium-Sized Businesses

What Is Token Hijacking?

Token hijacking, or session token hijacking, is a type of cyber attack where malicious attackers intercept or steal a user’s authentication token used in systems like cloud services or web applications. These tokens are small pieces of digital data that serve as a key to authenticate users and grant access to web pages, applications or systems without repeatedly entering their login credentials. Once stolen, attackers can impersonate legitimate users, gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data, applications and networks.

Token hijacking is particularly dangerous because, unlike stealing login credentials, it may bypass other security measures like two-factor authentication (2FA). The hijacker essentially “borrows” the authenticated user’s identity, making it more challenging to detect the breach.

Cloud Token Theft

Unfortunately, a new type of token hijacking has emerged as more and more companies move to the cloud: cloud token theft. This is when a malicious actor steals authentication tokens to gain unauthorized access to a user’s cloud account or sensitive data.

Read: Cybersecurity in the Cloud

How Does Token Hijacking Work?

Token hijacking follows these steps:

1. Session initiation: A legitimate user logs into an account, system or application. An authentication token is issued.
2. Interception or theft: The attacker steals the token through various methods, which we cover below.
3. Impersonation: Once the token is acquired, the attacker can use it to access accounts, systems or applications as the authenticated user without requiring their login credentials.
4. Breach: The attacker can exfiltrate personal or financial data, manipulate systems or deploy malicious activities.

Common Attack Methods

Here are some of the most common attack methods for token hijacking:

• Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks: The attacker intercepts the communication between a user and the server, capturing the authentication token in transit.
• Adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) attacks: AitM is an elevation of MitM but with a specific focus on using phishing.
• Phishing: The attacker tricks the user into providing their authentication token, often by creating fake login pages or convincing users to disclose their session data.
• Pass-the-cookie attack: This attack is where the attacker bypasses authentication controls by compromising browser cookies.
• Cross-site scripting (XSS): The attacker injects malicious scripts into a legitimate website or application. When the user interacts with the page, their token is stolen.
• Session fixation: The attacker provides a pre-set session ID to the user. Once the user logs in, the attacker can hijack the session using the pre-defined ID.
• Predictable session token ID: If a website creates session token IDs using predictable patterns, it’s easier for attackers to guess the ID.

Read: How to Detect – and Avoid – Phishing Attacks

The Dangers of Token Hijacking

Token hijacking presents several significant risks for businesses:

• Unauthorized access: Attackers can impersonate legitimate users, gaining access to confidential systems or data.
• Data breaches: Sensitive information, including financial records, intellectual property and personal data, may be stolen.
• Compliance violations: Token hijacking can lead to violations of regulations like GDPR or HIPAA.
• Financial loss: A data breach often results in costly fines, legal fees and downtime.
• Business disruption: Attackers can modify or delete files, shut down applications or initiate further attacks.
• Reputational damage: A breach can lead to a loss of trust among customers, stakeholders and employees, impacting brand reputation.
• Identity theft: By hijacking a session, attackers can impersonate the legitimate user, resulting in authorized actions, or they can access personal sensitive information.
• Financial theft: Attackers can perform financial actions that the legitimate user is authorized to do but won’t, like transferring money, making purchases or altering account details.

How to Protect Against Token Hijacking

Token hijacking is a serious threat, but with proper security measures, it’s possible to reduce the risk of this attack. Protecting your business from token hijacking requires a combination of robust security practices, monitoring and user education. Here are key strategies to mitigate the risk:

• Implement Microsoft Conditional Access: Microsoft Conditional Access is a powerful tool within the Microsoft 365 suite that protects resources from unauthorized access.
• Use secure communication channels: Always use HTTPS and other secure communication protocols to prevent tokens from being intercepted. Avoid using public Wi-Fi for essential tasks like banking, online shopping or logging into secure accounts.
• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA): Using MFA across your systems can provide an additional layer of security by requesting users to provide multiple verification methods.
• Monitor for anomalous behavior: Use monitoring tools to detect unusual login patterns or session activity that could indicate a compromised token, such as logins from unexpected IP addresses or devices.
• Use a VPN: A virtual private network (VPN) can encrypt your internet traffic, making it more difficult for attackers to intercept your data.
• Enforce Least Privilege Access: Limit the access that tokens grant to only what is necessary for users to perform their jobs. If a token is compromised, this minimizes the potential damage an attacker can do.
• Keep software updated: Ensure your operating system, cloud configurations, web browser and other software are updated with the latest software patches.
• Utilize strong passwords: Use strong, complex passwords that are difficult to guess, are at least 19 characters and contain a mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Avoid using the same password for multiple accounts.
• Educate employees: User awareness is a crucial component of cybersecurity. Regularly train your employees to recognize phishing attacks and suspicious activity, as well as understand the importance of securing tokens. Teach staff to never click on suspicious links, attachments or downloads from unknown sources.

Protect Your Company with Thriveon

Don’t wait for an attack to occur, especially since it’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month – take proactive steps to safeguard your IT environment. However, if you don’t know where to start, partner with an award-winning managed service provider like Thriveon.

We offer robust cybersecurity services to protect your company from all cyber attacks, including token hijacking. We audit and align your business to 500 industry best practices. Schedule a meeting now for more information.