My thoughts as a decidedly non-expert OAuth user (I have a consumer on
App Engine that'll access a GMail acct):

The consumer key & secret provide the out-of-band "understanding"
between the consumer and service provider.  The attacker exploits that
trust since the actual "user" does not enter into the mix when an
OAuth handshake begins (consumer asks for unauthorized request token).
 Seems there is no fix that does not connect the human user to that
initial request and verifies that human upon authorization. In ER
terms, there is a many-to-many between consumer and service.  That
many-to-many is resolved in a "bridge" that includes user. Any
interaction that "queries" the relationship based on the
Consumer<->Service out-of-band agreement absent user identification
will be vulnerable.  Does that sound right?

My bank uses a PIN number as an extra layer, and maybe it could
provide the lynchpin here?.  An initial request asks user to enter a
PIN.  That PIN is "mixed in" to the request token secret (just like
the consumer secret is mixed in).  When the user gets directed to the
service to authorize, they are required to enter their PIN.
(Obviously, the SP will check that the entered PIN is correct -- no
"state" necessary since it's encrypted into the secret).  If they do
not have it or get it wrong, auth request is rejected.  User can
easily go back to Consumer and start again.

Sorry if that's way off base -- just my initial take...

--peter keane

On Apr 23, 2:41 am, Eran Hammer-Lahav <[email protected]> wrote:
> The OAuth Security Advisory 2009.1 was posted on the OAuth site:
>
> http://oauth.net/advisories/2009-1
>
> For more information on the attack:
>
> http://www.hueniverse.com/hueniverse/2009/04/explaining-the-oauth-ses...
>
> No information has been withheld. The issue is now fully public.
>
> EHL
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