Oort Knowledge Base
  • Home
  • Glossary
  • 📊Dashboard
    • Get Started Dashboard
    • Overview Dashboard
    • MFA Dashboard
  • 👥Understanding your users
    • 📇Users
      • 💾Saved Filters
      • ❓Basic Search & Advanced Query Mode
    • 🩻User 360
      • 🗺️Overview Tab
      • 🔬Activity Tab
      • 📶Networks Tab
      • 💻Devices Tab
      • 🪺Applications and Groups Tabs
      • ✅Checks Tab
    • 🛠️Triaging Alerts and Remediation Actions
    • 🔗Linking User Accounts
    • 🤷User Statuses
  • 🗃️Applications
  • 💻Devices
  • 🧩Configuring Integrations
    • Managed Integrations
    • Auth0
      • Auth0 Data Integration
      • Auth0 Log Streaming & Marketplace App
    • Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) Data Integration
    • Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) SSO Integration
    • Azure Event Hub Log Streaming for Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD)
    • Azure Sentinel SIEM Integration
    • AWS
    • AWS User-Based Access [Deprecated]
    • Duo Security Integration
    • Email Notifications
    • Github
    • Google Workspace Integration
    • Jamf
    • Jira Integration
    • Mailgun Integration
    • Microsoft Teams Notification Integration
    • Okta Log Streaming AWS EventBridge Integration
    • Okta Data Integration
    • Okta Workflows
    • Okta Integration Network - Production SSO App
    • Okta SSO
    • Polarity Integration
    • Salesforce Integration
    • SendGrid Integration
    • ServiceNOW Integration
    • Slack
    • Snowflake
    • Webex Notification Integration
    • Webhooks
    • Workday
      • Manual Import (CSV)
      • Report as a Service (RaaS)
  • ☑️Understanding Check failures
    • 🔍Reviewing Check Results
    • 🧹Customizing Checks
    • 📖Cisco Identity Insights
      • Identity Posture Management Insights
        • Access from Denied Territories
        • Allow/Block Email Logins
        • Application Login Bypasses SSO
        • Applications with Expired Secret
        • HRIS Discrepancies
        • Identity Intelligence Client Secret Expiring Soon
        • Inactive Account Probing
        • Inactive Guest Users
        • Inactive Users
        • Missing Value in Mandatory Field
        • Never Logged In
        • No MFA Configured
        • No Strong MFA Configured
        • Okta Long Running Sessions
        • Okta Session Length Policy Compliance
        • Personal VPN Usage
        • Provider User Type Missing
        • Rate Limit Alert
        • Role Assigned to Azure Cloud Only Account
        • Salesforce Direct Login Settings
        • Shared Mailbox Sign In Enabled
        • Slack User Inconsistencies
        • Telecom MFA Limit Reached
        • Unmanaged Devices Access
        • Unused Application for a User
        • Upcoming App Key Expiration
        • User Authorized to Bypass MFA
        • User Has Directly Assigned Application
        • User in IDP but not in HRIS
        • User Password Expiration Failure
        • User Stuck in Non-functional State
        • Users Sharing Authenticators
        • Weak MFA Was Used To Successfully Sign In
      • Identity Threat Detection Insights
        • A Bypass Code Was Used To Successfully Sign In
        • Access From Dormant Account
        • Accounts With Unusually High Activity
        • Active Account Under Heavy Attack
        • Activity From Untrustworthy ISP
        • Admin Impersonation in Okta
        • Admin Role Assigned to User
        • Authenticator Registration Anomalies
        • Code Exfiltration By Guest Account
        • Compromised Session
        • Google Drive File with Excessive Sharing Permissions
        • Impossible Travel
        • IP Threat Detected
          • IP Threat Detected In Depth
        • Login to Admin Console
        • MFA Flood
        • Microsoft Entra ID Admin Activity Anomaly
        • New Country for Tenant
        • New IDP Created
        • Okta Admin Activity Anomaly
        • Rare Browser Activity
        • Registered Location Mismatch
        • Risky Parallel Sessions
        • Service Account Successful Sign In
        • Shared Mailbox Successful Sign In
        • Sign In Threat Detected
        • Sign-in from Recently Created IdP
        • Successful Access from a Previously Only Failing IP
        • Super Admin Login to Google
        • Suspicious Activity Reported by End User
        • Unusual Repo Access
        • User IP in Blocked State
        • User Lock Out Risk Detected
        • User Trust Level Alert
        • Users With Defined Email Forward Rules
        • Users With New Email Forward Rules
        • Weak MFA Manually Activated and Utilized
  • ⚙️Tenant Settings
    • 👨‍💼Role-based Access (RBAC) and Tenant Access Logs
    • Systems Logs
  • 🏥Identity Posture Score
  • 🚨User Trust Level
  • How-to Guides
    • 🔐Accessing and Securing your Cisco Identity Intelligence Tenant
    • 🏎️Can Identity Intelligence analyze behavior and fail checks more frequently?
    • 🛂Importing Known IP Address Lists
    • 🔎Networks Tab & User Investigations
    • 🔁Okta Workflows Webhook Example
    • 🗃️Understanding HRIS Data and SCIM
    • MFA Factors FAQ
  • Public API
    • APIs
  • Troubleshooting & Support
    • API Permissions for Integrations
    • Responsible Disclosure Policy
  • Best Practices
    • 🛣️What’s Next? How to use Identity Intelligence effectively
    • 📚Identity Security Reading List
    • ✍️KPIs for
 IAM Teams
  • Blogs
    • 0ktapus for humans
    • Oort Releases GitHub Integration To Extend Identity Threat Detection
    • Oort Recognized Twice as a Sample Vendor in Gartner® 2023 Hype Cycle Reports™
    • Oort's Response Capabilities: Remediate Compromised Accounts with Just One Click
    • Oort Unveils Dashboard, Providing A Single Pane of Glass for Identities
    • Oort’s New Identity Security Dashboard
    • Oort Unveils Identity Technology Ecosystem, Bringing Identity Data out of Orbit and Into View
    • Oort: Your Security Layer On Top Of Okta
    • Populating the Unpopulated: Challenges of Building a Comprehensive User Inventory
    • Protecting IT Help Desk Teams Against Cyber Attacks
    • Protecting Salesforce Accounts from Takeovers and Ungoverned Access
    • Restrict Guest Access Permissions: Best Practices and Challenges
    • Seizing the Communication Opportunity: Aligning Perspectives in Identity Security
    • Session Hijacking in a Post-Genesis World
    • SIEM vs. Security Data Lake: Why it's Time to Rethink Your Security Program
    • Speaking the Same Language for Identity Security: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond
    • State of Identity Security research reveals 40% of accounts use weak or no form of multi-factor authentication to protect identities
    • Strengthening Identity Controls: Mapping to CIS CSC and NIST CSF Security Frameworks
    • Strengthening Identity Security with Single Sign-On (SSO) Systems
    • Succeeding with Proper Detection for Identity Security: A Comprehensive Approach
    • Taking a Data-Driven Approach to Identity Security
    • The Concerning Prevalence of Weak Second Factors
    • The Crucial Role of an Identity Security Leader
    • Why I am Joining Oort
    • The Quest for a Passwordless World
    • Understanding Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)
    • Understanding the Implications of New SEC Rules on Cyber Incident Disclosure
    • Unlocking the Power of Zero Trust: The Crucial Role of Identity and Oort's Identity Security Platform
    • Respond Even Quicker to Identity Threats
    • What to Look Out For at Gartner IAM
    • 7 Critical Requirements for Securing Third-Party and Vendor Access
    • Best Practices for Efficiently Responding to Identity Threats
    • Announcing our Identity Technology Partner Ecosystem
    • Catching waves and building clouds
    • Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire Oort
    • CISO Perspectives: Eric Richard, HubSpot
    • Defining Roles & Responsibilities for an Identity Security Program
    • Detecting Session Hijacking
    • 8 Things to Look for in an ITDR Solution
    • Enhancing Identity Threat Detection: Introducing Oort’s New GitHub Integration
    • Founder Perspective: Matt Caulfield On Why He Started Oort
    • Founder Perspective: Vision To Reality
    • Four Reasons Why Traditional SIEMs Fall Short For Identity Security Programs
    • How Oort Partners with Duo for Unbeatable Secure Access
    • Governance, Risk, and Compliance
    • How to Find Inactive Users
    • Identity and Access Management and Oort Explained
    • 5 Identity Security Questions Every IAM Leader Needs to Answer
    • Identity security is bigger than just ITDR
    • Identity is the apex threat vector, so why is identity security still a mess?
    • Identity Threat Detection
    • Identity Threat Detection and Response: what you need to know
    • Identiverse 2023: What I'm Looking Forward to & What Not to Miss
    • Interview with Oort: Best Practices for Managing & Protecting Service Accounts
    • Interview with Alex “Sasha” Zaslavsky (Oort Data Science Lead)
    • Interview with Andy Winiarski (Head of Solutions Engineering)
    • Interview with Nicolas Dard (Oort’s VP of Product Management)
    • Introducing our Latest Integration to Protect Identities in AWS
    • Introducing The 2023 State of Identity Security Report
    • Maintaining a Strong Identity Security Posture: Why IAM Hygiene Matters
    • Managing Machine Identities: A Comprehensive Guide
    • Managing Risk In Shipwreck Diving and Security
    • Monitoring MFA Usage and Adoption: Strengthening Your Security Strategy
    • Okta Breach: Why Attackers Target GitHub, and What You Can Do to Secure It
    • Okta Security
    • Oort and Polarity Combine to Provide Instant Context on Identities
    • Oort + Polarity: Instant Identity Context to Power Investigations and Response
    • Oort Announces $15M in Seed and Series A Funding Round
    • Oort Stacks Go-to-Market Leadership Team Following Series A Investment
    • Oort Extends Identity Threat Detection with New AWS Integration
    • Announcing General Availability of the Oort Identity Analytics & Automation Platform
    • Oort Joins Forces with Microsoft Intelligent Security Association to Bring Visibility into Unmanaged Devices
    • Oort Joins the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA)
    • Building an Effective Identity Security Program: A Comprehensive Handbook
    • Oort Launches Identity Security Platform in Auth0 Marketplace
    • Oort Launches Identity Security Platform in AWS Marketplace
    • Oort Launches One-Click Remediation Actions for Streamlined Identity Security Response
    • Oort Origins and Our Vision for Identity Security
  • Release Notes
    • Week 22, 2024
    • Week 21, 2024
    • Week 20, 2024
    • Week 19, 2024
    • Week 18, 2024
    • Week 17, 2024
    • Week 16, 2024
    • Week 14, 2024
    • Week 13, 2024
    • Week 11, 2024
    • Week 9, 2024
    • Week 7, 2024
    • Week 5, 2024
    • Week 4, 2024
    • Week 3, 2024
    • Week 2, 2024
    • 2023
      • Week 49, 2023
      • Week 48, 2023
      • Week 47, 2023
      • Week 46, 2023
      • Week 45, 2023
      • Week 44, 2023
      • Week 43, 2023
      • Week 42, 2023
      • Week 41, 2023
      • Week 40, 2023
      • Week 39, 2023
      • Week 38, 2023
      • Week 37, 2023
      • Week 35, 2023
      • Week 34, 2023
      • Week 33, 2023
      • Week 32, 2023
      • Week 31, 2023
      • Week 30, 2023
      • Week 29, 2023
      • Week 28, 2023
      • Week 27, 2023
      • Week 26, 2023
      • Week 25, 2023
      • Week 24, 2023
      • Week 23, 2023
      • Week 22, 2023
      • Week 21, 2023
      • Week 20, 2023
      • Week 19, 2023
      • Week 18, 2023
      • Week 17, 2023
      • Week 16, 2023
      • Week 15, 2023
      • Week 13, 2023
      • Week 12, 2023
      • Week 11, 2023
      • Week 10, 2023
      • Week 9, 2023
      • Week 8, 2023
      • Week 7, 2023
      • Week 6, 2023
      • Week 5, 2023
      • Week 4, 2023
      • Week 3, 2023
      • Week 2, 2023
      • Week 1, 2023
    • 2022
      • Week 51, 2022
      • Week 50, 2022
      • Week 49, 2022
      • Week 48, 2022
      • Week 47, 2022
      • Week 46, 2022
      • Week 43, 2022
      • Week 42, 2022
      • Week 41, 2022
      • Week 38, 2022
      • Week 37, 2022
      • Week 36, 2022
      • Week 35, 2022
      • Week 34, 2022
      • Week 33, 2022
      • Week 32, 2022
      • Week 31, 2022
      • Week 30, 2022
      • Week 29, 2022
      • Week 24, 2022
      • Week 12, 2022
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • What do we know so far?
  • Recommendations
  1. Blogs

0ktapus for humans

Sep 13, 2022

PreviousBlogsNextOort Releases GitHub Integration To Extend Identity Threat Detection

Last updated 9 months ago

On August 7th this year an attack called #oktapus started to get uncovered by Group-IB. The attack was targeting Okta customers, but how does the sentence “9,931 accounts at more than 130 organizations were compromised by a phishing attack on Twilio and Cloudflare employees” make sense? These are just two companies and only one of them reported the attack to be successful. So how does that data make sense? Let me start with an old joke: A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes that he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts, “Excuse me. Can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him half an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.” The man below says, “Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 40 and 42 degrees north latitude, and between 58 and 60 degrees west longitude.” “You must be an engineer,” says the balloonist. “I am”, replies the man. “How did you know?” “Well…” says the balloonist. “Everything you told me was technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information and the fact is I am still lost.”

I am going to skip the retort about the balloonist being a manager, but we get the point. #management and #engineering have a communication gap and in #security it’s even worse, as we #engineers talk jargon and details, trying to impress our peers rather than explaining what we are seeing. I am going to do what Richard Feynman did to the Challenger report, oversimplify it. I am going to make hypotheses without complete data and skip details, but give a big picture that is #ciso readable and action-oriented to help address the following:

  1. If you are an Okta customer, should you be worried and what should you do?

  2. What does the recent attack mean in terms of security threats and the direction it is taking. (and why you should care about #itdr)

What do we know so far?

Around August 4th a #phishing attack targeting the texting infrastructure company Twilio was launched. The attack targeted its Okta infrastructure, while trying to dig deeper at attacking Okta customers. There was also a failed attack targeting Cloudflare. We know the attackers also gained access to Signal Messenger. The attack was first reported by Group-IB and each of the companies attacked, including DoorDash, all acted in a very responsible and transparent way. They reported timelines and #iocs , provided screenshots and reversing reporting. But no one has said what it means for customers and users. So here are a few points, in order of importance to you, an Okta or #AzureAD customer.

  1. The attack was very well planned, but not very technologically sophisticated. They used a known toolkit that emulates the Okta login page, mainly for desktop, but they also targeted mobile. Meaning this was a smart attacker making the most of the tools they have. Why target Okta now? Well because, like RSA 13 years ago, they hold the keys to the kingdom in many organizations. For you, the customer that thinks that MFA (often based on weak factors like SMS) solves all your Identity threats, well, this is not the case. We passed the stage where outrunning the slowest of the group was enough. Now you do need to outrun the bear, or at least a big enough part of the pack. Later in this article I will give you tips on how to outrun the pack.

  2. Most text messages over the internet go through companies like Twilio, so if someone wants to attack users using SMS, you would go after such companies. If I were to attack such companies, intending to hijack authentication sessions, capturing SMS traffic for authenticators would be my move. I am not sure if either Okta or Twilio commented on what role Twilio plays in Okta SMS traffic, but I would not be surprised if the former was used to carry authentication messages. It is interesting that they have a dependency on one another.

  3. Also, I would guess Okta leverages Cloudflare, because this is not the first attack relating to both. Someone is trying to host and hijack Okta-hosted login pages. Okta allows you to pick one of three options: (i) Okta hosted domain and application, (ii) Okta hosted application, but not domain (custom domain names) and (iii) you host everything.

  4. Right now the most valuable assets are credentials. The attack goal was to steal as many of them as possible, partial or full. Specifically, targeting organizations that are part of the global software supply chain. These credentials in turn can be used to attack the next step. This is not the last time it will happen. You need to be able to address an attack on your identity infrastructure provider.

Recommendations

Many customers still have SMS or phone calls as an authentication factor. This needs to go away, even as a recovery factor, unless you keep a close eye on using it for recovery. What factor should I use if my install base refuses to use anything on their personal phones? Are they willing to only access from company devices? If the answer is yes, just install Okta fastpass or Duo Security on their endpoint and use a biometric as a factor. If the answer is no, still consider pressure, mainly due to overall data security. It’s a bit complicated to want access to company data without company oversight. TOTP is not fun, but can also work. Most solutions these days support phone built-in solutions and do not mandate the client.Last solution should be a Yubico security keys, not because they are bad, but rather as the person that dealt with provisioning RSA tokens, physical tokens take forever to get to where they are going, while they are the most effective measure, just ask the person that had his kid flush one down the drain, what they can do then.

To effectively get rid of SMS, you will need to get a sense of who has SMS registered as a second factor, and who is actively using it. Also you need to know if SMS was used as a factor while accessing sensitive applications like the Okta admin console. If you have not migrated to OIE (Okta Identity Engine) yet, you might want to have a stronger policy on specific applications allowing SMS only on the lower-important ones. If you do have OIE, there is a way to allow SMS only for recovery purposes.