Mobile Login Bridge: Subverting 2FA and Passwordless Authentication via Android Debug Bridge
Ahmed Tanvir Mahdad, Nitesh Saxena · 2024
Smartphones have become ubiquitous for a range of social, financial, and personal endeavors, as well as for accessing sensitive resources like confidential files from organizations. Nevertheless, this extensive usage has also made smartphones vulnerable to multiple security risks posed by malicious ad-versaries who intend to breach user accounts or steal personal information. Specifically, high-profile individuals or organizations are susceptible to becoming targets of targeted attacks. Previous research has identified various vulnerabilities that can compro-mise smartphones and access users' confidential information. A prominent example of such a vulnerability, known as the “An-droid Debug Bridge (ADB) vulnerability,” is widely recognized as it enables an attacker to remotely access and manipulate an Android smartphone and perform malicious activities. However, the existing body of literature lacks a comprehensive examination of the implications of this vulnerability on modern authentication systems, web-based password managers, and financial and e-commerce applications. In this paper, we shed light on this area and evaluated the security of multi-factor authentication systems, browser-based password managers, and popular financial and e-commerce applications. For this purpose, we introduce the BADAuth11Named after ”Bridge Android Debug for malicious Authentication” attack that exploits a set of ADB utilities. Our results reveal the susceptibility of secure authentication systems and browser-based password managers to a sophisticated one-time attack on a non-rooted device even with the latest Android version (Android 14.0). Furthermore, our research exposes the alarming ability of adversaries to access all passwords stored by browser-based password managers, thus paving the way for more severe attacks, including large-scale breaches within organizational settings. Additionally, our assessment underscores potential privacy and security risks for financial and e-commerce apps under BADAuth attacks, along with possible risk mitigation strategies.