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Re: Multifactor Authentication Account Harvesting

Subject: Re: Multifactor Authentication Account Harvesting
Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2007 09:38:58 +0100
Hi,

I have come across some web sites that take all the information from the users first and then return an error message if any one part of the information is not correct. So if the web site asks the user to supply a user name on the first screen and without comparing it with the valid user names in the database, goes on to the second screen where a user is asked to supply further information such as a passphrase or challenge-response questions or both. Once all this information is supplied by the user, web application compares the responses to see if this is a valid user or not. This way web site does not leak any information about valid user names and thus prevents harvesting of accounts.

Regards
Vishal


At 19:35 7/3/2007, Jeffory Atkinson wrote:
Good day all,

I was wondering if anyone has come up for a solution for mitigating =
account harvesting via multifactor authentication. It seems to combat
phishing, = more and more sites are moving to multifactor authentication
but, there is an inherent security flaw in the logic that in my mind out
weighs potential phishing risk. In most instances that I have seen,
multifactor authentication requires a user to supply their user ID on one
page and = if the user is valid it will return a password page with an image
= accompanied with a user set phrase or request additional security
questions. This = logic allows anyone to attempt to harvest valid accounts.
Due to the fact if = it is not a valid account the application will not
return an image with a = phrase or the additional security questions.  Any
thoughts or possible solutions welcomed.

Thanks for your time.
JA


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*************************************************************** Vishal Garg MSc CISSP Penetration Tester First Base Technologies Tel: +44 (0)1273 454525 www.fbtechies.co.uk www.white-hats.co.uk ****************************************************************


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