Identity Subversion

Category: Authentication & Authorization
Severity: High

Description

Flaws allowing attackers to assume other identities or escalate privileges through identity manipulation, enabling unauthorized access and impersonation of legitimate users or systems.

Technical Details

Attack Vector

  • Identity manipulation vulnerabilities
  • User impersonation attacks
  • Identity token manipulation
  • Identity validation bypass

Common Techniques

  • Token manipulation
  • Identity spoofing
  • User impersonation
  • Identity validation bypass

Impact

  • Identity Theft: Unauthorized assumption of user identities
  • Impersonation: Acting as legitimate users or systems
  • Privilege Escalation: Higher-level access through identity manipulation
  • Trust Exploitation: Abuse of trust relationships

Detection Methods

Identity Monitoring

  • Monitor identity changes
  • Track identity validation
  • Detect identity manipulation
  • Analyze identity patterns

Token Analysis

  • Monitor token usage
  • Track token manipulation
  • Detect token anomalies
  • Analyze token patterns

Mitigation Strategies

Identity Protection

  • Implement strong identity validation
  • Use identity verification
  • Deploy identity monitoring
  • Monitor identity changes

Token Security

  • Implement token validation
  • Use token integrity checks
  • Deploy token monitoring
  • Monitor token usage

Real-World Examples

Example 1: Token Manipulation

def validate_user_token(token):
    # Weak token validation
    decoded = base64.decode(token)
    user_data = json.loads(decoded)
    
    # Attack: Manipulate token to change user identity
    # token = base64.encode('{"user_id": "admin", "role": "admin"}')
    
    return user_data

Example 2: Identity Spoofing

def get_user_identity(user_id, client_ip):
    # Weak identity validation
    if client_ip in trusted_ips:
        return {"user_id": user_id, "trusted": True}
    
    # Attack: Spoof IP address to appear trusted
    # client_ip = "192.168.1.100" (trusted internal IP)

Example 3: User Impersonation

def impersonate_user(admin_user, target_user):
    # Weak impersonation validation
    if admin_user.role == "admin":
        return create_session(target_user)
    
    # Attack: Manipulate admin_user.role to "admin"
    # admin_user.role = "user_admin" (contains "admin")

References & Sources

  • OWASP GenAI Security - “Securing AI’s New Frontier”
  • CyberArk - “Is your AI safe? Threat analysis of MCP”

Identity subversion attacks exploit weaknesses in identity validation to enable unauthorized access and impersonation.