Authentication Downgrade Attacks: Deep Dive into MFA Bypass

Phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA), particularly FIDO2/WebAuthn, has become the industry standard for protecting high-value credentials. Technologies such as YubiKeys and Windows Hello for Business rely on strong cryptographic binding to specific domains, neutralizing traditional credential harvesting and AitM (Adversary-in-the-Middle) attacks.

However, the effectiveness of these controls depends heavily on implementation and configuration. Research conducted by Carlos Gomez at IOActive has identified a critical attack vector that bypasses these protections not by breaking the cryptography, but by manipulating the authentication flow itself. This research introduces two key contributions: first, the weaponization of Cloudflare Workers as a serverless transparent proxy platform that operates on trusted Content Delivery Network (CDN) infrastructure with zero forensic footprint; second, an Authentication Downgrade Attack technique that forces victims to fall back to phishable authentication methods (such as push notifications or OTPs) even when FIDO2 hardware keys are registered. — Read More

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