What Okta’s failures say about the future of identity security in 2025

2025 must be the 12 months id suppliers go all in on bettering each facet 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 observe their lead and do the identical.

Whereas Okta is without doubt one of the first id administration distributors to join CISA’s Safe by Design pledge, they’re nonetheless struggling to get authentication proper. Okta’s latest advisory informed prospects that consumer names of 52 characters might 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 surprising 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 report for the adoption of multi-factor authentication (MFA) amongst each customers and directors of Workforce Id Cloud. That’s desk stakes to guard prospects right this 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 12 months. “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 begin,” in line with a latest weblog publish.

Okta is getting outcomes with CISA’s Safe by Design

It’s commendable that so many id administration distributors have signed the CISA Safe by Design Pledge. Okta signed in Might of this 12 months, committing to the initiative’s seven safety objectives. Whereas Okta continues to make progress, challenges persist. 

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

1. Not being demanding sufficient relating to MFA: Okta has reported important 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 regular for it. Google and Microsoft’s obligatory MFA insurance policies spotlight the hole between Okta’s voluntary measures and the {industry}’s new safety normal.

• Vulnerability Administration wants to enhance, beginning with a strong dedication to red-teaming. Okta’s bug bounty program and vulnerability disclosure coverage are, for essentially 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 experiences. 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 capability to handle rising threats early.

• Logging and monitoring enhancements have to be fast-tracked. Okta is enhancing logging and monitoring capabilities for higher safety visibility, however as of Oct. 2024, many enhancements stay incomplete. Essential options like real-time session monitoring and sturdy auditing instruments are nonetheless below improvement, which hinders Okta’s capability to supply complete, real-time intrusion detection throughout its platform. These capabilities are vital to providing prospects quick insights and responses to potential safety incidents.

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

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

Okta’s missteps make a powerful 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 id administration.

Latest incidents Okta has skilled embody:

• March 2021 – Verkada Digicam Breach: Attackers gained entry to over 150,000 safety cameras, exposing important community safety vulnerabilities.
• January 2022 – LAPSUS$ Group Compromise: The LAPSUS$ cybercriminal group exploited third-party entry to breach Okta’s atmosphere.
• 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 information 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) recordsdata that include energetic session cookies and started breaching Okta’s prospects, trying to penetrate their networks and exfiltrate information. 
• 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 by way of extra thorough testing and red-teaming practices.

Purple-teaming methods for future-proofing id safety

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

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

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

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

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

Extra automated assault simulations are wanted to stress-test id administration platforms. OpenAI’s GPT-4o mannequin makes use of automated adversarial assaults to continually pressure-test its defenses. Okta might implement comparable automated situations, enabling speedy 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, guaranteeing that evolving risk information instantly informs defenses and accelerates response to rising dangers.

Why 2025 will problem id 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 the vast majority of breaches, id administration suppliers should face the challenges head-on and step up safety throughout each facet of their merchandise. That should embody integrating safety into their SDLC and serving to DevOps groups turn out to be acquainted with safety so it’s not an afterthought that’s rushed by way of instantly earlier than launch.

CISA’s Safe by Design initiative is invaluable for each cybersecurity supplier, and that’s particularly the case for id 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.

Enhancing the accuracy, latency and high quality of information by way of crimson teaming is the gasoline 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 workforce operate 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 id administration supplier’s arsenal. Purple teaming is core to staying aggressive whereas having a combating likelihood to remain at parity with adversaries.

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