Windows feature or flaw? Alexander Korznikov a security researcher published a way that helps you get the highest level accessof a network, without needing the password.
The researcher said in a blog post that a privileged user, such as a local administrator with system rights, can use the line orders to hijack a session of another logged in user who has higher privileges.
Korznikov mentioned that his technique is not just about gaining access to one account with higher privileges, but can also be used by system administrators to gain access to accounts with lower privileges.
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 reported testing the bug on Windows 7 systems, 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 impersonate any logged in user either locally with physical access or remotely through it 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 on the 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.