Loop of Doom: How a Recursive Redirect Opened the Gates to Session Hijacking ♻️
1 min read
Summary
The story revolves around a cybersecurity researcher who finds a way to exploit a recursive redirect during a reconnaissance mission of a target organisation.
After finding a vulnerable subdomain, the researcher goes on to test the login redirect function.
This redirect is usually used to send users to a trusted page after they log in.
The researcher tries to manipulate the function by entering a rogue URL redirect but is stopped by the target organisation’s security system, which validates redirect hosts.
Nonetheless, the researcher manages to find a way to make the redirect function recursively, which allows them to send users into an infinite loop, giving the researcher the opportunity to steal their sessions.
The researcher eventually manages to harness this recursive redirect to perform a session hijacking, virtually taking control of the user’s session, and potentially taking over their account.
The story highlights the importance of ensuring that security systems are regularly audited and patched to prevent such vulnerabilities.