How to Take Control of Microsoft 365 Accounts, Despite MFA?

How to Take Control of Microsoft 365 Accounts, Despite MFA?

The MFA is better than the password itself. That’s for sure. However, the MFA itself has long since lost its sense of security. Traditional methods like SMS and TOTP can already be easily cheated, and in this article, we will deal with this very topic.

Trickery and Technology: the Attack Scheme

Let’s imagine a scenario where a cybercriminal wants to take over a Microsoft 365 account. He starts by creating a convincing imitation of a legitimate domain and then, using social engineering, convinces the user to click on the infected link contained in the e-mail. The user clicks on a legitimate-looking link without knowing that “Evilginx” has already started running in the background.

Evilginx Tool: Phishing at a Higher Level.

Evilginx is a malicious man-in-the-middle tool that allows criminals to intercept credentials and authentication tokens, thus bypassing multi-factor authentication (MFA). The process begins by cloning the Evilginx repository and preparing a suitable environment to launch the attack, whether on Linux or Windows.

Configuring the Attack Environment

Criminals set up a phishing server, using services like Digital Ocean to create a credible-looking fake website. The goal is to get a potential victim to provide their login information unknowingly.

Phislets: The Key to Successful Phishing

Phislets are configuration scripts used by Evilginx to target specific websites. Creating a phislet requires knowing the site’s structure under attack and adjusting variables such as proxy hosts, authorization tokens, and user credentials accordingly.

Live Attack Using Evilginx

On his YouTube channel, John Hammond recently demonstrated how to launch a phishing attack on a Microsoft 365 account using Evilginx. The video shows modifying YAML files, configuring a domain, and using a reverse proxy to trick login credentials.

Social Engineering in Action

The social engineering aspect of phishing attacks is as crucial as the hacking tools and techniques. Using manipulative skills, criminals target people’s natural inclinations and reflexes, such as trust, fear, or urgency to act, to elicit an automatic, reckless response. By creating the illusion of authenticity, such as impersonating official communications from well-known companies or institutions, they force victims to disclose their data in a process that, at first glance, appears to be a standard verification procedure. Social engineering enables criminals to pass through two-factor security, where the second factor – the person and his tendencies – is the weakest link. Criminals are not only successful in phishing for authentication information through psychological techniques. Still, they can install malware on victims’ devices or access sensitive resources, using them to further fraud or sell them on the black market, ultimately taking complete control of compromised accounts.

Assumption of Full Entitlement

Once digital criminals gain access to login credentials, the opportunity to escalate privileges up to the administrator level opens up a particularly dangerous dimension of cyberattacks. With full administrative privileges, they can not only freely roam network resources, manipulate data, and create or delete user accounts but also implement backdoors that will ensure long-term access to the system even after the original entry point is detected and removed. Such action threatens immediate business continuity and poses the risk of leaking sensitive data, including the personal information of customers and employees, which can lead to significant financial and reputational losses for the organization. The attacker’s assumption of full privileges transforms the initial phishing attack into a persistent and complex threat that requires much more difficult and costly intervention to restore the security and integrity of IT systems.

How to Defend Against Evilginx and MFA Workarounds

The development of tools such as Evilginx2 underscores the evolution of phishing techniques that are becoming increasingly sophisticated, using man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks to steal login credentials and two-factor authentication tokens. The use of such tools by attackers poses a significant threat to organizations’ cyber security worldwide. However, as pointed out during the discussion led by Adam Haertle (Trusted Third Party), there are methods and tools to counter such threats effectively.

watch now how to defend against evilginx

An essential part of the defense against attacks using Evilginx2 is the Secfense User Access Security Broker (UASB), developed by Marcin Szary, CTO and co-founder of Secfense. This solution makes it possible to implement strong authentication (e.g., FIDO2, passkeys) on a large scale without modifying existing applications or infrastructure. The webinar, which also featured Evilginx2 solution developer Kuba Gretzky, addressed the effectiveness of FIDO authentication in countering such threats and discussed how Secfense UASB facilitates FIDO implementation by eliminating the need to write code.

Suppose you want to explore the technical nuances of Evilginx2’s performance and understand how Secfense UASB can enhance your organization’s defense strategy. In that case, we encourage you to register and watch the transcript of a discussion with the developers of these two technologies. This is a unique opportunity to learn practical strategies for implementing FIDO authentication and better understand the limitations of traditional MFA and methods for overcoming them.

In addition to gaining expert knowledge, the webinar is a chance to understand how the contrasting ends of the cyber security spectrum – attackers and defenders – can shape the future of online security.

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Testimonials

We are faced with new challenges every day. We must always be one step ahead of the attackers and know what they are going to do before they do it. We are convinced that the User Access Security Broker will bring security to a new level, both for those working at the office and from home. For us, working with Secfense is an opportunity to exchange experience with developers who put great value on out-of-the-box thinking.

Krzysztof Słotwiński

Business Continuity and Computer Security Officer

BNP Paribas Bank Poland

As part of the pre-implementation analysis, we verified that users utilize a wide range of client platforms: desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and traditional mobile phones. Each of these devices differs in technological advancement, features, and level of security. Because of this, and also due to the recommendation of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (UKNF), we decided to introduce additional protection in the form of multi-factor authentication mechanisms based on FIDO. As a result, users of our applications can log in safely, avoiding common cyber threats such as phishing, account takeover, and theft of their own and their clients’ data.

Marcin Bobruk

CEO

Sandis

We are excited to partner with Secfense to enhance our user access security for our web apps. By integrating their User Access Security Broker, we ensure seamless and secure protection for our applications and systems, delivering superior security and convenience to our customers.

Charm Abeywardana

IT & Infrastructure

Visium Networks

Before investing in Secfense, we had the opportunity to talk to its existing clients. Their reactions were unanimous: wow, it’s so easy to use. We were particularly impressed by the fact that implementing their solution does not require the involvement of IT developers. It gives Secfense a huge advantage over the competition, and at the same time opens the door to potential customers who so far were afraid of changes related to the implementation of multi-factor authentication solutions.

Mateusz Bodio

Managing Director

RKKVC

Even when the network and infrastructure are secured enough, social engineering and passwords can be used to gain control of the system by attackers. Multifactor authentication is the current trend. Secfense addresses this and allows you to build zero trust security and upgrade your current systems to passwordless applications within minutes, solving this problem right away,” said Eduard Kučera, Partner at Presto Ventures and cybersecurity expert – former Director in hugely successful Czech multinational cyber security firm Avast.

Eduard Kučera

Partner

Presto Ventures

One of the biggest challenges the world is facing today is securing our identity online. That’s why we were so keen to have Secfense in our portfolio. They make it possible to introduce strong authentication in an automated way. Until now, organizations had to selectively protect applications because the deployment of new technology was very hard, or even impossible. With Secfense, the implementation of multi-factor authentication is no longer a problem, and all organizations can use the highest standards of authentication security.

Stanislav Ivanov

Founding Partner

Tera Ventures

Two-factor authentication is known to be one of the best ways to protect against phishing; however, its implementation has always been difficult. Secfense helped us solve that problem. With their security broker, we were able to introduce various 2FA methods on our web applications at once.

Dariusz Pitala

Head of IT

MPEC S.A.