Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed particulars of a now-patched account takeover vulnerability affecting a preferred on-line journey service for resort and automobile leases.
“By exploiting this flaw, attackers can acquire unauthorized entry to any consumer’s account throughout the system, successfully permitting them to impersonate the sufferer and carry out an array of actions on their behalf – together with reserving inns and automobile leases utilizing the sufferer’s airline loyalty factors, canceling or enhancing reserving info, and extra,” API security agency Salt Labs stated in a report shared with The Hacker Information.
Profitable exploitation of the vulnerability may have put tens of millions of on-line airline customers in danger, it added. The identify of the corporate was not disclosed, nevertheless it stated the service is built-in into “dozens of economic airline on-line companies” and permits customers so as to add resort bookings to their airline itinerary.
The shortcoming, in a nutshell, may be weaponized trivially by sending a specifically crafted hyperlink that may be propagated through customary distribution channels equivalent to electronic mail, textual content messages, or attacker-controlled web sites. Clicking on the hyperlink is sufficient for the menace actor to hijack management of the sufferer’s account as quickly because the login course of is full.
Websites that combine the rental reserving service have the choice to login to the latter utilizing the credentials related to the airline service supplier, at which level the rental platform generates a hyperlink and redirects the consumer again to the airline’s web site to finish authentication through OAuth.
As soon as the register is profitable, the customers are directed to a web site that adheres to the format “<rental-service>.<airlineprovider>.sec,” from the place they will use their airline loyalty factors to ebook inns and automobile leases.
The assault methodology devised by Salt Labs includes redirecting the authentication response from the airline website, which incorporates the consumer’s session token, to a website beneath the attacker’s management by manipulating a “tr_returnUrl” parameter, successfully permitting them to entry the sufferer’s account in an unauthorized method, together with their private info.
“Because the manipulated hyperlink makes use of a reputable buyer area (with manipulation occurring solely on the parameter degree moderately than the area degree), this makes the assault tough to detect by way of customary area inspection or blocklist/allowlist strategies,” security researcher Amit Elbirt stated.
Salt Labs has described service-to-service interactions as a profitable vector for API provide chain assaults, whereby an adversary targets the weaker hyperlink within the ecosystem to interrupt into programs and steal personal buyer knowledge.
“Past mere knowledge publicity, attackers can carry out actions on behalf of the consumer, equivalent to creating orders or modifying account particulars,” Elbirt added. “This essential threat highlights the vulnerabilities in third-party integrations and the significance of stringent security protocols to guard customers from unauthorized account entry and manipulation.”