close
close
Your Network of Tomorrow
Your Network of Tomorrow
Plan your path toward a faster, more secure, and more resilient network designed for the applications and users that you support.
          Experience Netskope
          Get Hands-on With the Netskope Platform
          Here's your chance to experience the Netskope One single-cloud platform first-hand. Sign up for self-paced, hands-on labs, join us for monthly live product demos, take a free test drive of Netskope Private Access, or join us for a live, instructor-led workshops.
            A Leader in SSE. Now a Leader in Single-Vendor SASE.
            A Leader in SSE. Now a Leader in Single-Vendor SASE.
            Netskope debuts as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Single-Vendor SASE
              Securing Generative AI for Dummies
              Securing Generative AI for Dummies
              Learn how your organization can balance the innovative potential of generative AI with robust data security practices.
                Modern data loss prevention (DLP) for Dummies eBook
                Modern Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for Dummies
                Get tips and tricks for transitioning to a cloud-delivered DLP.
                  Modern SD-WAN for SASE Dummies Book
                  Modern SD-WAN for SASE Dummies
                  Stop playing catch up with your networking architecture
                    Understanding where the risk lies
                    Advanced Analytics transforms the way security operations teams apply data-driven insights to implement better policies. With Advanced Analytics, you can identify trends, zero in on areas of concern and use the data to take action.
                        The 6 Most Compelling Use Cases for Complete Legacy VPN Replacement
                        The 6 Most Compelling Use Cases for Complete Legacy VPN Replacement
                        Netskope One Private Access is the only solution that allows you to retire your VPN for good.
                          Colgate-Palmolive Safeguards its "Intellectual Property” with Smart and Adaptable Data Protection
                          Colgate-Palmolive Safeguards its "Intellectual Property” with Smart and Adaptable Data Protection
                            Netskope GovCloud
                            Netskope achieves FedRAMP High Authorization
                            Choose Netskope GovCloud to accelerate your agency’s transformation.
                              Let's Do Great Things Together
                              Netskope’s partner-centric go-to-market strategy enables our partners to maximize their growth and profitability while transforming enterprise security.
                                Netskope solutions
                                Netskope Cloud Exchange
                                Netskope Cloud Exchange (CE) provides customers with powerful integration tools to leverage investments across their security posture.
                                  Netskope Technical Support
                                  Netskope Technical Support
                                  Our qualified support engineers are located worldwide and have diverse backgrounds in cloud security, networking, virtualization, content delivery, and software development, ensuring timely and quality technical assistance
                                    Netskope video
                                    Netskope Training
                                    Netskope training will help you become a cloud security expert. We are here to help you secure your digital transformation journey and make the most of your cloud, web, and private applications.

                                      Cloud Threats Memo: Understanding the Growing Risk of Consent Phishing

                                      Feb 02 2023

                                      The advent of cloud applications led to a new generation of phishing attacks (named OAuth phishing or consent phishing) where, rather than stealing the user credentials,  threat actors aim to obtain an authorization token via a rogue cloud app that allows them to perform harmful activities on the victim’s cloud environment. These activities include: reading emails, sending emails on behalf of the victim itself, reading the calendar, changing profile and email settings, and many others permissions that can be exploited to steal confidential information from the target.

                                      The so-called user experience is similar to a traditional phishing attack. The victim receives a malicious link, for example via a spear phishing email, but instead of being presented with a form mimicking a legitimate app eager to steal their credentials, they are presented with an authentication page where a seemingly legitimate cloud app asks to access their cloud environment with specific permissions on behalf of the user, permissions that the victims do not double check and end up delivering attackers the keys of the kingdom Multi-factor authentication does not help to mitigate this attack, since the user must authenticate to the target app to provide consent to the malicious application. Then once the authorization token is issued, the only way to remediate is to delete the malicious app from the target environment or, in other terms, revoke the token.

                                      Example of an OAuth phishing page allowing the consent to manage emails and contacts

                                      Threat actors have been exploiting this technique since at least 2017 for both opportunistic and targeted campaigns: APT 28 (also known as Pawn Storm) is the first known example of a state-sponsored threat actor exploiting OAuth phishing since 2017. But the risks of this attack were almost completely unknown to the wider audience, until May 3rd of the same year, when a massive OAuth worm hit more than one million Google Workspace users (and yes, it was called G Suite back then).

                                      Since then, there have been multiple examples of campaigns carried out via OAuth phishing, and the risks connected with third-party application access to corporate data are a reality, and will also be the topic of a presentation of our Netskope Threat Labs at the forthcoming RSA Conference by our top-rated speaker Jenko Hwong.

                                      In the latest occurrence, Microsoft and Proofpoint have just taken down a network of fraudulent, verified Microsoft Partner Network accounts exploited to create malicious OAuth applications with the purpose to infiltrate the cloud environments of corporate users in the UK and Ireland and steal sensitive information.

                                      The campaign occurred between December 6 and December 27, 2022, and the threat actors impersonated credible publishers to become verified themselves, and provide even better legitimacy to the malicious OAuth apps. According to Microsoft, the rogue apps were used to steal customers’ emails, but according to Proofpoint, the reality is unsurprisingly worse since the app’s permissions could have allowed the attackers to access calendars and meeting information and modify user permissions.

                                      Netskope SSPM (SaaS Security Posture Management) continuously monitors and enforces SaaS security settings, policies, and best practices to reduce security and compliance risks, helping organizations to detect rogue applications with harmful permissions and enforce the corresponding remediation actions. Among the entities that can be monitored for a Microsoft 365 environment, there are also the OAuth permission grants to third-party apps (entity OAuth2PermissionGrant), so that organizations can be alerted if an OAuth app obtains permissions considered harmful and too intrusive. As noted earlier, once a user falls into the trap of OAuth phishing, the only possibility is to revoke the authorization token and remove the application, and Netskope SSPM can certainly identify malicious OAuth apps and provide the organization with actionable information to remediate the threat.

                                      For example a rule that verifies that the OAuth permissions granted to third-party apps will not modify app role assignments, is part of the predefined profiles: 

                                      • CSA-CCM-4.0– CSA Cloud Controls Matrix
                                      • GDPR-2016-679– General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679
                                      • HIPAA-1996– Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
                                      • ISO-27002-2013– ISO/IEC 27002:2013
                                      • NIST-CSF-1.1– NIST Cybersecurity Framework
                                      • NIST-800-53-4– NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 4
                                      • PCI-DSS-3.0– PCI Data Security Standard v3.0
                                      • AICPA-SOC-TSC-2017– AICPA SOC2 2017 Trust Services Criteria for Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy

                                      However it is also possible to create custom rules that check for specific scopes considered harmful or non-compliant with the internal policies.

                                      Stay safe!

                                      author image
                                      Paolo Passeri
                                      Paolo supports Netskope’s customers in protecting their journey to the cloud and is a security professional, with 20+ years experience in the infosec industry.
                                      Paolo supports Netskope’s customers in protecting their journey to the cloud and is a security professional, with 20+ years experience in the infosec industry.

                                      Stay informed!

                                      Subscribe for the latest from the Netskope Blog