Feature or defect of Windows? Alexander Korznikov, a security researcher, has published a way to help you get the most out of a network without having to code access.
The researcher reported in a blog post that a privileged user, such as a local Admin with system privileges, can use the command line to hijack a session of another logged-in user who has higher privileges.
Korznikov said his technique is not only to gain access to an account with higher privileges, but can also be used by system administrators to access accounts with lower entitlements.
The researcher says:
"A bank clerk has access to a billing system and its credentials to be able to connect. One day, he started using the billing system and during the break, he locked his job. The system administrator can then log in to the employee's workstation. According to the bank's policy, the administrator should not have access to the billing system, but with two built-in commands in Windows, the administrator can hijack the account of the employee, who is still locked. This way, the administrator can perform malicious actions on the billing system through the employee's account. ”
All it takes is about half a minute, according to the PoC video published by the researcher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VytjV2kPwSg
Korznikov said he tested the bug on systems running Windows 7, Windows 10, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012 R2, and works on every supported version of Windows.
Korznikov did not report the matter to Microsoft.
"Everything is done with built-in commands. "Any administrator can emulate any logged-in user either locally with physical access or remotely via Remote Desktop," he said.
"Reporting to Microsoft could take six months to resolve the issue, and I wanted to let them all know as soon as possible."
A Microsoft spokesman said the alleged flaw "is not a security vulnerability, as it requires local administrator privileges in machine. "
Feature or defect? The researcher himself has given as a title to his publication “0-day or Feature? Privilege Escalation / Session Hijacking All Windows versions. ” Whether it is or the usefulness of the PoC you attended will be judged by you.
However, if you think of the scenario with the bank described by the researcher, it may well be malicious actions without the consent of the account holder.