How the Fortnite hack would have worked
Researchers outlined the process in which an attacker could have potentially gained access to a user’s account through vulnerabilities discovered in Fortnite’s user login process. Due to three vulnerability flaws found in Epic Games’ web infrastructure, researchers were able to demonstrate the token-based authentication process used in conjunction with Single Sign-On (SSO) systems such as Facebook, Google and Xbox to steal the user’s access credentials and take over their account.
To fall victim to this attack, a player needed to click on a crafted phishing link coming from an Epic Games domain, to make everything seem transparent, though sent by the attacker. Once clicked, the user’s Fortnite authentication token would have been captured by the attacker without the user entering any login credentials. According to Check Point’s researchers, the potential vulnerability originated from flaws found in two of Epic Games’ sub-domains that were susceptible to a malicious redirect, allowing users’ legitimate authentication tokens to be intercepted by a hacker from the compromised sub-domain.
“These flaws provided the ability for a massive invasion of privacy,” said Oded Vanunu, head of products vulnerability research for Check Point. “Together with the vulnerabilities we recently found in the platforms used by drone manufacturer DJI, they show how susceptible cloud applications are to attacks and breaches. These platforms are being increasingly targeted by hackers because of the huge amounts of sensitive customer data they hold. Enforcing two-factor authentication could mitigate this account takeover vulnerability.”
Check Point notified Epic Games of the vulnerability, which was then fixed.
Click here to read how consumers and companies can protect themselves from such vulnerabilities.
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