![]() By exploiting server or application vulnerabilities, attackers can inject client-side scripts (typically JavaScript) into web pages, causing your browser to execute arbitrary code when it loads a compromised page. Cross-site scripting (XSS): This is probably the most dangerous and widespread method of web session hijacking.The first broad category are attacks focused on intercepting cookies: What Are the Main Methods of Session Hijacking and How Do They Work?Īttackers have many options for session hijacking, depending on the attack vector and the attacker’s position. ![]() With session spoofing, attackers use stolen or counterfeit session tokens to initiate a new session and impersonate the original user, who might not be aware of the attack. As the name implies, session hijacking is performed against a user who is currently logged in and authenticated, so from the victim’s point of view the attack will often cause the targeted application to behave unpredictably or crash. While closely related, hijacking and spoofing differ in the timing of the attack. What Is the Difference Between Session Hijacking and Session Spoofing? ![]() For individual users, similar risks also exist when using external services to log into applications, but due to additional safeguards when you log in using your Facebook or Google account, hijacking the session cookie generally won’t be enough to hijack the session. This means that a successful session hijack can give the attacker SSO access to multiple web applications, from financial systems and customer records to line-of-business systems potentially containing valuable intellectual property. One particular danger for larger organizations is that cookies can also be used to identify authenticated users in single sign-on systems (SSO). Depending on the targeted application, this may mean transferring money from the user’s bank account, posing as the user to buy items in web stores, accessing detailed personal information for identity theft, stealing clients’ personal data from company systems, encrypting valuable data and demanding ransom to decrypt them – and all sorts of other unpleasant consequences. If successful, the attacker can then perform any actions that the original user is authorized to do during the active session. What Can Attackers Do After Successful Session Hijacking? The session cookie is an identifier returned by the web application after successful authentication, and the session initiated by the application user has nothing to do with the TCP connection between the server and the user’s device. This is because cookies are a feature of HTTP, which is an application-level protocol, while TCP operates on the network level. Note: The related concept of TCP session hijacking is not relevant when talking about attacks that target session cookies. The server is then fooled into treating the attacker’s connection as the original user’s valid session. In both cases, after the user is authenticated on the server, the attacker can take over (hijack) the session by using the same session ID for their own browser session. This can be obtained by stealing the session cookie or persuading the user to click a malicious link containing a prepared session ID. To perform session hijacking, an attacker needs to know the victim’s session ID (session key). ![]() HTTP is a stateless protocol and session cookies attached to every HTTP header are the most popular way for the server to identify your browser or your current session. In most cases when you log into a web application, the server sets a temporary session cookie in your browser to remember that you are currently logged in and authenticated. Although any computer session could be hijacked, session hijacking most commonly applies to browser sessions and web applications. The attack relies on the attacker’s knowledge of your session cookie, so it is also called cookie hijacking or cookie side-jacking. A session starts when you log into a service, for example your banking application, and ends when you log out. Session hijacking is an attack where a user session is taken over by an attacker.
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