Re: [WEB SECURITY] cookies a fundamental threat?

["Brian Eaton" <eaton.lists () gmail com>]

Hi Arian -

On 5/9/06, Evans, Arian <Arian.Evans () fishnetsecurity com> wrote:
> What are we, close to a decade now on this thread?

At least. =)

> Per your examples below, there are a lot of different ways
> to use tokens (contextual) and different ways to implement
> tokens and /one possible way/ is a cookie, which has pros and
> cons, just like all the other options, but has the HUGE con
> of being automagically supplied by the browser...*not* even
> upon demand, not requiring some challenge-response scenario,
> but will be supplied by the browser with even the simplest
> tickle to make a request. This is called CSRF, or the catchier
> but possibly misleading "securenet session riding"! ;)

Good point.  If you use hidden form fields or random elements in the
URL for sessions, you get CSRF protection for free.  If you are using
cookies, you need to take extra steps to block CSRF attacks.

> My mates and I released a proxy at BH Amsterdam that did
> all this for you automatically. 256 bit AES, stored flags for
> various bits in the HTTP resp, removed and stored things like
> cookies for you (which is how it worked transparently), and
> could be 1) URL param, 2) URI resource, 3) replace URI (most
> secure...and fun, 4) legacy URL/param support.

Would you be willing to summarize what kind of attacks your proxy can
prevent, and what kind it cannot?  Or perhaps point us to a more
detailed description of what it does?

Regards,
Brian

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