Identity Management / Insecure Password Reset

Description

Insecure password reset is a vulnerability (CWE-309) that is found in Identity Management systems. It allows an attacker to exploit the system and reset a user's account password without their knowledge or consent. This type of attack can be performed through web and API interfaces as well as through infrastructure components such as servers and databases. According to the OWASP Testing Guide, this type of attack can be performed with a variety of different methods, including social engineering, brute force attacks, guessing, and exploiting vulnerable code.

Risk

Insecure password reset can have serious consequences, including data theft, data manipulation, and access to sensitive information. In addition to the direct risk to the system, this vulnerability also exposes user accounts to potential attacks, which can lead to further security issues. A risk assessment should be performed to identify and mitigate the potential risks.

Solution

The best way to mitigate the risk of an insecure password reset is to ensure that all users have a strong password. This can be done by requiring passwords to be a certain length and include a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters. In addition, two-factor authentication should be used to ensure additional security.

Example

The following code is an example of a vulnerable password reset API endpoint:

app.post('/reset-password', (req, res) => {
  const username = req.body.username;
  const newPassword = req.body.password;
 
  const user = User.findByUsername(username);
  user.password = newPassword;
  user.save();
 
  res.status(200).json({ message: 'Password Reset Successful' });
});

This code is vulnerable to an insecure reset password attack, as it does not check whether or not the user is authorized to reset the password. Additionally, it does not require any form of authentication or authorization to perform the reset.