Content area

Abstract

FIDO2 is the standard technology for single-factor and second-factor authentication. It is specified in an open standard, including the WebAuthn and CTAP application layer protocols. We focus on CTAP, which allows FIDO2 clients and hardware authenticators to communicate. No prior work has explored the CTAP Authenticator API, a critical protocol-level attack surface. We address this gap by presenting the first security and privacy evaluation of the CTAP Authenticator API. We uncover two classes of protocol-level attacks on CTAP that we call CTRAPS. The client impersonation (CI) attacks exploit the lack of client authentication to tamper with FIDO2 authenticators. They include zero-click attacks capable of deleting FIDO2 credentials, including passkeys, without user interaction. The API confusion (AC) attacks abuse the lack of protocol API enforcements and confound FIDO2 authenticators, clients, and unaware users into calling unwanted CTAP APIs while thinking they are calling legitimate ones. The presented eleven attacks are conducted either in proximity or remotely and are effective regardless of the underlying CTAP transport. We detail the eight vulnerabilities in the CTAP specification, enabling the CTRAPS attacks. Six are novel and include unauthenticated CTAP clients and trackable FIDO2 credentials. We release CTRAPS, an original toolkit, to analyze CTAP and conduct the CTRAPS attacks. We confirm the attacks practicality on a large scale by exploiting six popular authenticators, including a FIPS-certified one from Yubico, Feitian, SoloKeys, and Google, and ten widely used relying parties, such as Microsoft, Apple, GitHub, and Facebook. We present eight practical and backward-compliant countermeasures to fix the attacks and their root causes. We responsibly disclosed our findings to the FIDO alliance and the affected vendors.

Details

1009240
Identifier / keyword
Title
CTRAPS: CTAP Client Impersonation and API Confusion on FIDO2
Publication title
arXiv.org; Ithaca
Publication year
2024
Publication date
Dec 3, 2024
Section
Computer Science
Publisher
Cornell University Library, arXiv.org
Source
arXiv.org
Place of publication
Ithaca
Country of publication
United States
University/institution
Cornell University Library arXiv.org
e-ISSN
2331-8422
Source type
Working Paper
Language of publication
English
Document type
Working Paper
Publication history
 
 
Online publication date
2024-12-04
Milestone dates
2024-12-03 (Submission v1)
Publication history
 
 
   First posting date
04 Dec 2024
ProQuest document ID
3140664088
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/working-papers/ctraps-ctap-client-impersonation-api-confusion-on/docview/3140664088/se-2?accountid=208611
Full text outside of ProQuest
Copyright
© 2024. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.
Last updated
2024-12-05
Database
2 databases
  • ProQuest One Academic
  • ProQuest One Academic