Potential Security Vulnerability: Accessing Internal Applications via Stolen SSO Cookies

A developer at a security-conscious company has identified a potential security vulnerability. By copying SSO authentication cookies from a browser's developer tools and pasting them into Postman, the developer was able to access an internal CRUD application from the internet. This raises significant concerns about the security of internal applications that are exposed to the internet without adequate protection. The company does not enforce the use of a VPN for internal tools, and additional security measures are left to individual teams. The developer highlights the risk of cookie theft from unmonitored computers or insecure networks, as warned in annual security training. This incident underscores the importance of securing authentication tokens and cookies. Authentication cookies should be protected with measures such as HttpOnly flags, Secure flags, and SameSite attributes to prevent theft via XSS and other attacks. Additionally, internal applications should be behind a VPN or other network-level security controls. Organizations should ensure that internal applications are not exposed to the internet without proper security controls and should implement security measures for authentication cookies.