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attack-surface.md

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Attack Surface Analysis for ory/kratos

Attack Surface: 1. Authentication Bypass (Weak Authentication Mechanisms)

  • Description: Vulnerabilities within Kratos's authentication implementation that allow attackers to circumvent authentication processes and gain unauthorized access as legitimate users or administrators. This stems from flaws in Kratos's code responsible for verifying user credentials.
  • Kratos Contribution: Kratos is the core component responsible for implementing and enforcing authentication. Bugs or design flaws in Kratos's authentication logic are the direct cause of this attack surface.
  • Example: A coding error in Kratos's password hashing or verification algorithm allows an attacker to bypass password checks and log in without knowing the correct password.
  • Impact: Complete compromise of user accounts, data breaches, unauthorized actions performed as legitimate users, and potential system-wide takeover.
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Prioritize Kratos updates: Immediately apply security patches and version upgrades released by the Ory team to address known authentication vulnerabilities.
    • Rigorous security testing: Conduct focused penetration testing and security audits specifically targeting Kratos's authentication flows and mechanisms.
    • Leverage strong authentication features: Utilize Kratos's support for multi-factor authentication (MFA) to add an extra layer of security beyond passwords.
    • Adhere to secure configuration practices: Follow Ory's recommended security configuration guidelines for authentication methods and settings within Kratos.

Attack Surface: 2. Authorization Logic Errors

  • Description: Flaws in Kratos's authorization engine or policy enforcement that lead to users gaining access to resources or functionalities beyond their intended permissions. This occurs when Kratos incorrectly evaluates or applies authorization rules.
  • Kratos Contribution: Kratos's policy engine and authorization enforcement mechanisms are central to access control. Errors in Kratos's code or misconfiguration of policies within Kratos directly create this attack surface.
  • Example: A misconfiguration or bug in Kratos's permission checks allows a regular user to access and modify administrative settings or user data that should be restricted to administrators.
  • Impact: Data breaches, unauthorized data modification or deletion, privilege escalation, and potential compromise of sensitive system functionalities.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Define precise authorization policies: Implement granular and well-defined authorization policies within Kratos, adhering to the principle of least privilege.
    • Regularly audit authorization policies: Periodically review and verify Kratos's authorization policies to ensure they accurately reflect intended access controls and are free of errors.
    • Comprehensive authorization testing: Thoroughly test Kratos's authorization enforcement by simulating various user roles and access scenarios to confirm policies are correctly applied.
    • Utilize Kratos's policy management features: Effectively use Kratos's built-in features for managing and enforcing authorization policies, such as Access Control Lists (ACLs) and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).

Attack Surface: 3. Account Takeover via Password Reset Flaws

  • Description: Vulnerabilities in Kratos's password reset functionality that enable attackers to initiate and complete password resets for legitimate user accounts without proper authorization. This exploits weaknesses in Kratos's password recovery flow.
  • Kratos Contribution: Kratos directly implements the password reset flow. Design or implementation flaws within Kratos's password reset process are the root cause of this vulnerability.
  • Example: A vulnerability in Kratos's password reset token generation makes tokens predictable or brute-forceable, allowing an attacker to guess a valid reset token and take over any account.
  • Impact: Complete account takeover, identity theft, unauthorized access to user data and functionalities, and potential for further malicious activities using compromised accounts.
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Employ strong password reset tokens: Ensure Kratos generates cryptographically secure, random, and unpredictable password reset tokens.
    • Implement rate limiting for password resets: Configure Kratos to enforce rate limits on password reset requests to prevent brute-force attacks.
    • Secure password reset link delivery: Utilize HTTPS for all password reset communications and consider using short-lived, one-time use reset links generated by Kratos.
    • Account lockout on failed reset attempts: Configure Kratos to implement account lockout mechanisms after multiple unsuccessful password reset attempts to deter attackers.
    • Consider email verification for password reset initiation: Enhance security by requiring email verification before allowing a password reset to proceed within Kratos.

Attack Surface: 4. Session Hijacking

  • Description: Vulnerabilities in Kratos's session management that allow attackers to steal or manipulate user session identifiers, enabling them to impersonate legitimate users and gain unauthorized access to their accounts. This exploits weaknesses in how Kratos handles user sessions.
  • Kratos Contribution: Kratos is responsible for generating, managing, and validating user sessions. Weaknesses in Kratos's session handling mechanisms directly contribute to the risk of session hijacking.
  • Example: Kratos generates predictable session tokens, or does not properly protect session tokens from being accessed via Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in applications interacting with Kratos, allowing attackers to steal and reuse session tokens.
  • Impact: Account takeover, unauthorized access to user data and functionalities, and potential data breaches due to impersonation of legitimate users.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Generate strong session tokens: Configure Kratos to generate cryptographically secure and random session tokens that are difficult to predict or guess.
    • Secure session token handling: Ensure Kratos is configured to use secure cookies (HttpOnly and Secure flags) for session token storage and transmission over HTTPS.
    • Implement session timeouts and renewal: Configure Kratos to enforce session timeouts and implement session renewal mechanisms to limit the lifespan of session tokens.
    • Session token rotation: Configure Kratos to rotate session tokens after critical events like password changes or privilege escalations to minimize the impact of token compromise.
    • XSS prevention in integrated applications: While not directly Kratos, ensure applications using Kratos are protected against XSS vulnerabilities that could be exploited to steal session tokens managed by Kratos.

Attack Surface: 5. Admin API Insecure Access Control

  • Description: Weak or missing access controls on Kratos's Admin API, allowing unauthorized users or processes to access administrative functionalities. This is a direct result of insufficient security measures implemented for Kratos's administrative interface.
  • Kratos Contribution: Kratos provides the Admin API and is responsible for its security. Lack of proper access control mechanisms within Kratos for the Admin API is the direct cause of this attack surface.
  • Example: The Kratos Admin API is exposed without any authentication or authorization requirements, or uses default, easily guessable credentials, allowing anyone with network access to perform administrative actions.
  • Impact: Complete compromise of the Kratos instance, data breaches due to unauthorized access to all user data, system instability through configuration changes, and potential takeover of the entire identity management system.
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Strictly control Admin API access: Implement robust authentication and authorization mechanisms specifically for the Kratos Admin API, such as API keys, mutual TLS, or dedicated authentication providers.
    • Use strong, unique Admin API credentials: Avoid default credentials and ensure strong, unique credentials are used for Admin API access.
    • Network segmentation for Admin API: Isolate the Admin API network and restrict access to only authorized administrators and systems from trusted networks.
    • Comprehensive Admin API access logging and monitoring: Implement detailed logging and monitoring of all Admin API access attempts and actions to detect and respond to suspicious activity.
    • Restrict Admin API exposure: Avoid exposing the Admin API directly to public networks if possible, and use network firewalls or reverse proxies to limit access.

Attack Surface: 6. Data Breach through Admin API Access

  • Description: Compromise of Kratos's Admin API leading to a large-scale data breach, exposing all sensitive user data managed by Kratos. This is a direct consequence of insufficient security on Kratos's administrative interface.
  • Kratos Contribution: Kratos stores all sensitive identity data. A compromised Admin API in Kratos provides direct access to this data, making Kratos a central point of failure in case of Admin API compromise.
  • Example: An attacker gains unauthorized access to the Kratos Admin API and uses it to export the entire user database, including personal information, credentials, and other sensitive attributes.
  • Impact: Massive data breach, severe reputational damage, significant legal and regulatory penalties, and widespread privacy violations affecting all users managed by Kratos.
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Secure the Admin API (as detailed in point 5): Strong access control for the Admin API is the most critical mitigation.
    • Data encryption at rest and in transit within Kratos: Ensure Kratos is configured to encrypt sensitive data both when stored in the database and during transmission within the system.
    • Principle of least privilege for Admin API users: Grant Admin API access only to users and systems that absolutely require it, and with the minimum necessary privileges.
    • Data minimization within Kratos: Minimize the amount of sensitive data stored within Kratos to reduce the potential impact of a data breach.
    • Regular security audits and penetration testing of Kratos: Conduct frequent security assessments specifically targeting the Admin API and related security controls within Kratos.

Attack Surface: 7. Insecure Defaults (Configuration)

  • Description: Utilizing default configurations of Kratos that are not secure for production environments, leading to exploitable vulnerabilities. This arises from not properly securing Kratos beyond its out-of-the-box settings.
  • Kratos Contribution: Kratos, like many software systems, ships with default configurations. If these defaults are insecure and are not modified during deployment, Kratos directly contributes to this attack surface by providing an insecure starting point.
  • Example: Using default database credentials provided in Kratos's example configurations, leaving debug mode enabled in a production Kratos instance, or not configuring proper TLS/HTTPS settings for Kratos's services.
  • Impact: Various vulnerabilities depending on the specific insecure default, ranging from information disclosure (debug mode) and unauthorized access (default credentials) to man-in-the-middle attacks (lack of HTTPS).
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Thoroughly review and customize all default configurations: Change all default passwords, disable debug modes, and configure all security-related settings in Kratos according to security best practices and Ory's recommendations before production deployment.
    • Automate secure configuration management: Use configuration management tools to automate the deployment of Kratos with secure configurations and ensure consistency across environments.
    • Consult Kratos security configuration guides: Refer to the official Ory Kratos documentation and security guides for recommended security configurations and best practices.
    • Regularly review Kratos configuration settings: Periodically review and update Kratos's configuration settings to maintain a strong security posture and adapt to evolving threats.

Attack Surface: 8. Database Injection (SQL/NoSQL)

  • Description: Vulnerabilities in Kratos's code that interacts with the database, allowing attackers to inject malicious SQL or NoSQL queries. This exploits weaknesses in how Kratos handles data input when constructing database queries.
  • Kratos Contribution: Kratos's code is responsible for interacting with the database. If Kratos's developers fail to properly sanitize inputs or use parameterized queries, Kratos's code directly introduces this injection vulnerability.
  • Example: An attacker crafts a malicious input to a Kratos API endpoint that is not properly sanitized by Kratos, leading to the execution of arbitrary SQL queries on the underlying database, potentially allowing data extraction or modification.
  • Impact: Data breaches, unauthorized data modification or deletion, data loss, denial of service against the database, and potential for complete database server compromise.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Utilize parameterized queries or prepared statements in Kratos's code: Ensure Kratos's developers use parameterized queries or prepared statements for all database interactions to prevent SQL/NoSQL injection.
    • Implement robust input validation and sanitization within Kratos: Validate and sanitize all user inputs within Kratos's code before using them in database queries to prevent injection attacks.
    • Apply principle of least privilege for Kratos's database access: Grant Kratos database access with the minimum necessary privileges required for its operation to limit the impact of a successful injection attack.
    • Conduct regular security code reviews of Kratos integrations: Review Kratos's code, especially database interaction points, for potential injection vulnerabilities.
    • Database security hardening: Harden the database server itself and follow database security best practices independently of Kratos to provide defense in depth.