What Okta’s failures say about the way forward for identification safety in 2025

2025 must be the yr identification suppliers go all in on enhancing each side of software program high quality and safety, together with crimson teaming whereas making their apps extra clear and getting goal about outcomes past requirements.

 Anthropic, OpenAI and different main AI corporations have taken crimson teaming to a brand new degree, revolutionizing their launch processes for the higher. Id suppliers, together with Okta, must comply with their lead and do the identical.

Whereas Okta is without doubt one of the first identification administration distributors to join CISA’s Safe by Design pledge, they’re nonetheless struggling to get authentication proper. Okta’s latest advisory advised prospects that person names of 52 characters may very well be mixed with saved cache keys, bypassing the necessity to present a password to log in. Okta recommends that prospects assembly the pre-conditions ought to examine their Okta System Log for sudden authentications from usernames higher than 52 characters between the interval of July 23, 2024, to October 30, 2024.

Okta factors to its best-in-class file for the adoption of multi-factor authentication (MFA) amongst each customers and directors of Workforce Id Cloud. That’s desk stakes to guard prospects at the moment and a given to compete on this market.

Google Cloud introduced obligatory multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all customers by 2025. Microsoft has additionally made MFA required for Azure beginning in October of this yr. “Starting in early 2025, gradual enforcement for MFA at sign-in for Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, Azure cellular app, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) instruments will start,” in response to a latest weblog submit.

Okta is getting outcomes with CISA’s Safe by Design

It’s commendable that so many identification administration distributors have signed the CISA Safe by Design Pledge. Okta signed in Might of this yr, committing to the initiative’s seven safety targets. Whereas Okta continues to make progress, challenges persist. 

Pursuing requirements whereas trying to ship new apps and platform elements is difficult. Extra problematic nonetheless is maintaining a various, fast-moving sequence of DevOps, software program engineering, QA, crimson groups, product administration and entrepreneurs all coordinated and centered on the launch.  

1. Not being demanding sufficient with regards to MFA: Okta has reported vital will increase in MFA utilization, with 91% of directors and 66% of customers utilizing MFA as of Jan. 2024. In the meantime, extra corporations are making MFA obligatory with out counting on a normal for it. Google and Microsoft’s obligatory MFA insurance policies spotlight the hole between Okta’s voluntary measures and the {industry}’s new safety commonplace.

• Vulnerability Administration wants to enhance, beginning with a strong dedication to red-teaming. Okta’s bug bounty program and vulnerability disclosure coverage are, for probably the most half, clear. The problem they’re going through is that their strategy to vulnerability administration continues to be reactive, relying totally on exterior reviews. Okta additionally wants to take a position extra in crimson teaming to simulate real-world assaults and establish vulnerabilities preemptively. With out crimson teaming, Okta dangers leaving particular assault vectors undetected, probably limiting its potential to deal with rising threats early.

• Logging and monitoring enhancements should be fast-tracked. Okta is enhancing logging and monitoring capabilities for higher safety visibility, however as of Oct. 2024, many enhancements stay incomplete. Important options like real-time session monitoring and sturdy auditing instruments are nonetheless beneath growth, which hinders Okta’s potential to offer complete, real-time intrusion detection throughout its platform. These capabilities are crucial to providing prospects instant insights and responses to potential safety incidents.

Okta’s safety missteps present the necessity for extra sturdy vulnerability administration   

Whereas each identification administration supplier has had its share of assaults, intrusions and breaches to cope with, it’s fascinating to see how Okta is utilizing them as gas to re-invent itself utilizing CISA’s Safe by Design framework.

Okta’s missteps make a robust case for increasing their vulnerability administration initiatives, taking the crimson teaming classes realized from Anthropic, OpenAI and different AI suppliers and making use of them to identification administration.

Latest incidents Okta has skilled embrace:

• March 2021 – Verkada Digicam Breach: Attackers gained entry to over 150,000 safety cameras, exposing vital community safety vulnerabilities.
• January 2022 – LAPSUS$ Group Compromise: The LAPSUS$ cybercriminal group exploited third-party entry to breach Okta’s setting.
• December 2022 – Supply Code Theft: Attackers stole Okta’s supply code, pointing to inside gaps in entry controls and code safety practices. This breach highlighted the necessity for extra stringent inside controls and monitoring mechanisms to safeguard mental property.
• October 2023 – Buyer Assist Breach: Attackers gained unauthorized entry to buyer knowledge of roughly 134 prospects through Okta’s help channels and was acknowledged by the corporate on October 20, starting with stolen credentials used to realize entry to its help administration system. From there, attackers gained entry to HTTP Archive (.HAR) information that include energetic session cookies and commenced breaching Okta’s prospects, trying to penetrate their networks and exfiltrate knowledge. 
• October 2024 – Username Authentication Bypass: A safety flaw allowed unauthorized entry by bypassing username-based authentication. The bypass highlighted weaknesses in product testing, because the vulnerability might have been recognized and remediated via extra thorough testing and red-teaming practices.

Pink-teaming methods for future-proofing identification safety

Okta and different identification administration suppliers want to think about how they’ll enhance crimson teaming unbiased of any commonplace. An enterprise software program firm shouldn’t want a normal to excel at crimson teaming, vulnerability administration or integrating safety throughout its system growth lifecycles (SDLCs).

Okta and different identification administration distributors can enhance their safety posture by taking the crimson teaming classes realized from Anthropic and OpenAI under and strengthening their safety posture within the course of:   

Intentionally create extra steady, human-machine collaboration with regards to testing: Anthropic’s mix of human experience with AI-driven crimson teaming uncovers hidden dangers. By simulating different assault eventualities in real-time, Okta can proactively establish and handle vulnerabilities earlier within the product lifecycle.

Decide to excel at adaptive identification testing: OpenAI’s use of refined identification verification strategies like voice authentication and multimodal cross-validation for detecting deepfakes might encourage Okta to undertake comparable testing mechanisms. Including an adaptive identification testing methodology might additionally assist Okta defend itself towards more and more superior identification spoofing threats.

Prioritizing particular domains for crimson teaming retains testing extra centered: Anthropic’s focused testing in specialised areas demonstrates the worth of domain-specific crimson teaming. Okta may benefit from assigning devoted groups to high-risk areas, comparable to third-party integrations and buyer help, the place nuanced safety gaps might in any other case go undetected.

Extra automated assault simulations are wanted to stress-test identification administration platforms. OpenAI’s GPT-4o mannequin makes use of automated adversarial assaults to continually pressure-test its defenses. Okta might implement comparable automated eventualities, enabling fast detection and response to new vulnerabilities, particularly in its IPSIE framework.

Decide to extra real-time risk intelligence integration: Anthropic’s real-time information sharing inside crimson groups strengthens their responsiveness. Okta can embed real-time intelligence suggestions loops into its red-teaming processes, making certain that evolving risk knowledge instantly informs defenses and accelerates response to rising dangers.

Why 2025 will problem identification safety like by no means earlier than

Adversaries are relentless of their efforts so as to add new, automated weapons to their arsenals, and each enterprise is struggling to maintain up.

With identities being the first goal of nearly all of breaches, identification administration suppliers should face the challenges head-on and step up safety throughout each side of their merchandise. That should embrace integrating safety into their SDLC and serving to DevOps groups turn out to be accustomed to safety so it’s not an afterthought that’s rushed via instantly earlier than launch.

CISA’s Safe by Design initiative is invaluable for each cybersecurity supplier, and that’s particularly the case for identification administration distributors. Okta’s experiences with Safe by Design helped them discover gaps in vulnerability administration, logging and monitoring. However Okta shouldn’t cease there. They should go all in on a renewed, extra intense concentrate on crimson teaming, taking the teachings realized from Anthropic and OpenAI.

Bettering the accuracy, latency and high quality of information via crimson teaming is the gas any software program firm must create a tradition of steady enchancment. CISA’s Safe by Design is simply the place to begin, not the vacation spot. Id administration distributors going into 2025 must see requirements for what they’re: helpful frameworks for guiding steady enchancment. Having an skilled, strong crimson staff perform that may catch errors earlier than they ship and simulate aggressive assaults from more and more expert and well-funded adversaries is among the many most potent weapons in an identification administration supplier’s arsenal. Pink teaming is core to staying aggressive whereas having a preventing likelihood to remain at parity with adversaries.

Author’s observe: Particular because of Taryn Plumb for her collaboration and contributions to gathering insights and knowledge.