Stay secure online with the latest on authentication techniques, best practices, and industry updates at the forefront of information security.
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Background for this topic.
Authentication confirms the identity of users or systems before granting access to resources, typically using factors like passwords (knowledge), hardware tokens (possession), or biometrics (inherence). It establishes trust boundaries that prevent unauthorized entities from impersonating legitimate users or devices within networks and applications.
Weak authentication enables attackers to perform account takeover, privilege escalation, or lateral movement by exploiting stolen credentials, phishing, or replay attacks. Deploying multi-factor authentication (MFA) with independent factors significantly reduces these risks. Secure credential storage, regular rotation, and monitoring authentication logs for anomalies are critical defenses to detect and block unauthorized access attempts early in the attack chain.
D-Link has fixed two critical-severity vulnerabilities in its D-View 8 network management suite that could allow remote attackers to bypass authentication and execute arbitrary code. [...]
Zyxel is warning customers of two critical-severity vulnerabilities in several of its firewall and VPN products that attackers could leverage without authentication. [...]
Researchers at Tencent Labs and Zhejiang University have presented a new attack called 'BrutePrint,' which brute-forces fingerprints on modern smartphones to bypass user authentication and take control of the device. [...]