Account Denial of Service in MCO due to flawed password reset

Executive Summary

This vulnerability in MCO is an Account Denial of Service caused by improper implementation of the password reset functionality.

When a password reset request is made, it invalidates the previously set password and any temporary passwords. However, there is no limit on how many times password resets can be requested.

An attacker who knows the victim's email and can answer their security question can repeatedly initiate password resets, continuously invalidating the victim's credentials and effectively locking them out of their account.

The security questions have a limited number of tries, which somewhat reduces the risk, but the vulnerability still allows for account lockout through repeated resets.

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves an attacker initiating multiple password reset requests to continuously invalidate credentials and lock a victim out of their account. Detection would involve monitoring for unusual or repeated password reset requests for the same user account.

Since the vulnerability exploits the password reset functionality by providing the victim's email and correct answer to their security question, commands or scripts that analyze logs for repeated password reset attempts or spikes in reset requests could help detect exploitation attempts.

No specific commands or detection tools are provided in the available information.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can impact you by allowing an attacker to lock you out of your account.

By repeatedly initiating password resets, an attacker can invalidate your current password and temporary passwords, preventing you from accessing your account.

This results in a denial of service at the account level, disrupting your ability to use the affected service.

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Compliance Impact

The vulnerability in MyComplianceOffice (MCO) allows an attacker to repeatedly reset a victim's password, effectively locking the victim out of their account. This denial of service on user accounts could impact an organization's ability to maintain secure access controls and user availability, which are important aspects of compliance with standards like GDPR and HIPAA.

However, the provided information does not explicitly describe direct effects on compliance with specific regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA, nor does it detail any regulatory consequences or mitigation steps related to this vulnerability.

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Mitigation Strategies

Immediate mitigation steps should focus on limiting the ability to abuse the password reset functionality. This could include implementing rate limiting on password reset requests to prevent continuous invalidation of credentials.

Additionally, enhancing verification mechanisms beyond just the security question answers, or temporarily disabling password resets until a patch or fix is available, could reduce the risk of account denial of service.

Since vendor contact attempts were unsuccessful and no patch information is provided, monitoring and restricting password reset attempts is the primary recommended action.

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