So if I understand that correctly that cache is never updated again after it is initially created? Wouldn’t that lead to a lot of issues when the online account has its password changed in terms of the new password not working too? Something seems to be missing from this article.
Even after users change their account password, however, it remains valid for RDP logins indefinitely. In some cases, [independent security researcher Daniel] Wade reported, multiple older passwords will work while newer ones won’t.
Yeah, but “some cases” is extremely vague. If it is indeed cached indefinitely under all circumstances I would expect changed passwords to never work at all.
If it is just “some cases” it could be anything from the system using a stale cache just when it can not reach the online server (reasonable) over caches still being in some kind of TTL period to some sort of bug.
In typical MS fashion this might be very hard to debug with the hundreds of interacting components./s
In all seriousness they reviewed their internal docs not even the code (likely because it’s extremely complex) and said fixing this would brake existing functionality. I think “some cases” is doing heavy lifting for “we know many cases, but won’t tell the bad guys out there”.
“We originally looked at a code change for this issue, but after further review of design documentation, changes to code could break compatibility with functionality used by many applications.”
Year of the Linux (Server|Desktop). Seriously. If you are in IT pls look into this (and hide your RDP server behind some VPN. No not MS RDP Gateway.)
Anyone who isn’t doing this already is dumb. Same goes for exposing ssh publicly. I don’t care that you’re using a cert to log in, if there’s a 0 day in the openssh server you’re boned
If there’s a 0 day in the VPN software then I’m also probably boned. The chances of that seem on par with the likelihood of an openssh vulnerability? I feel like vpns are useful to secure services without good authentication, but their use in front of an openssh server has never made much sense to me.
So if I understand that correctly that cache is never updated again after it is initially created? Wouldn’t that lead to a lot of issues when the online account has its password changed in terms of the new password not working too? Something seems to be missing from this article.
That is addressed in the article
Yeah, but “some cases” is extremely vague. If it is indeed cached indefinitely under all circumstances I would expect changed passwords to never work at all.
If it is just “some cases” it could be anything from the system using a stale cache just when it can not reach the online server (reasonable) over caches still being in some kind of TTL period to some sort of bug.
In typical MS fashion this might be very hard to debug with the hundreds of interacting components./s
In all seriousness they reviewed their internal docs not even the code (likely because it’s extremely complex) and said fixing this would brake existing functionality. I think “some cases” is doing heavy lifting for “we know many cases, but won’t tell the bad guys out there”.
Year of the Linux (Server|Desktop). Seriously. If you are in IT pls look into this (and hide your RDP server behind some VPN. No not MS RDP Gateway.)
Anyone who isn’t doing this already is dumb. Same goes for exposing ssh publicly. I don’t care that you’re using a cert to log in, if there’s a 0 day in the openssh server you’re boned
If there’s a 0 day in the VPN software then I’m also probably boned. The chances of that seem on par with the likelihood of an openssh vulnerability? I feel like vpns are useful to secure services without good authentication, but their use in front of an openssh server has never made much sense to me.
They would have to breach the vpn and then also breach the other services once they’re on your network. It’s another layer of protection.