CertiGuide to Security+  9  Chapter 2:  Communication Security (Domain 2.0; 20%)       9  2.3  The Web            9  2.3.3  Instant Messaging                 9  2.3.3.1  Vulnerabilities

Unauthorized Use of Internet IM 1 Lack of Logging and Audit Trails

Additionally, there’s little in the way of authentication. In most cases, the IM program starts up when the user logs in. If the user walks away, they are still logged into the IM program and anyone can potentially walk up to their PC, click on a buddy within the organization’s accounting department, send a message asking for customer Jane Doe’s credit card number, and order themselves a nice new stereo from their favorite net electronics provider without the accounting clerk’s knowledge that the person who submitted the credit card number request was unauthorized to do it. (After all, in IM today, messages tend to be sent in text rather than by voice, so they lack even the primitive authentication mechanism we have with voice conversations, that of, “Does that voice sound like the person I expect to be talking with?”) As noted above, some solutions have started to address the need for user authentication via PKI, but commonly-available clients have yet to support authentication beyond, “If you know the user ID, and you know the password, you must be that user.”

Unauthorized Use of Internet IM 1 Lack of Logging and Audit Trails