Vulnerability Exploiting SMS Push Notifications

Abstract

SMS (Short Message Service)-based authentication is widely used as a simple and secure multi-factor authentication, where OTP (One Time Password) is sent to user’s mobile phone via SMS. However, SMS authentication is vulnerable to Password Reset Man in the Middle Attack (PRMitM). In this attack, the attacker makes a victim perform password reset OTP for sign-up verification OTP. If the victim enters OTP to a malicious man-in-the-middle site, the attacker can overtake the victim’s account.We find new smartphone useful functions may increase PR-MitM attack risks. SMS push notification informs us an arrival of message by showing only beginning of the message. Hence, those who received SMS OTP do not notice the cautionary notes and the name of the sender that are supposed to show below the code, which may lead to be compromised. Auto-fill function, which allow us to input authentication code with one touch, is also vulnerable for the same reason.In this study, we conduct a user study to investigate the effect of new smartphone functions incurring PRMitM attack.