Senior LevelAuthentication & Authorization
How do you apply STRIDE Threat Modeling to identify security vulnerabilities in Authentication Architecture?
❓ Interview Prompt: Explain STRIDE Threat Modeling (Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service, Elevation of Privilege) for identity pipelines.
STRIDE Threat Modeling is a systematic security framework developed by Microsoft to evaluate vulnerabilities across complex authentication and identity architectures:
STRIDE Applied to Identity Systems:
1
Spoofing Identity: Pretending to be another user $\rightarrow$ Mitigation: Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), FIDO2 Passkeys, mTLS.
2
Tampering with Data: Modifying JWT claims or SAML assertions in transit $\rightarrow$ Mitigation: Cryptographic signatures (RS256, HMAC), TLS 1.3.
3
Repudiation: A user denies performing an action $\rightarrow$ Mitigation: Cryptographic non-repudiation audit logging, signed transactions.
4
Information Disclosure: Leaking session tokens via Referer headers or XSS $\rightarrow$ Mitigation: HttpOnly cookies, Referrer-Policy, encryption.
5
Denial of Service (DoS): Exhausting auth server CPU via heavy bcrypt work factors $\rightarrow$ Mitigation: Dual-bucket rate limiting, CAPTCHA gates.
6
Elevation of Privilege: Normal user gaining Admin rights via parameter pollution $\rightarrow$ Mitigation: Strict RBAC/ABAC authorization checks.
Code Implementation Example
typescript
// STRIDE Security Audit Checklist Generator
const strideAuditChecklist = {
S: { threat: 'Spoofing', mitigation: 'Mandatory FIDO2 Passkeys + mTLS' },
T: { threat: 'Tampering', mitigation: 'RS256 Asymmetric JWT Signatures' },
R: { threat: 'Repudiation', mitigation: 'Append-Only Audit Logs with HMAC Nonces' },
I: { threat: 'Info Disclosure', mitigation: 'HttpOnly Secure SameSite=Strict Cookies' },
D: { threat: 'Denial of Service', mitigation: 'Redis Sliding Window Rate Limiting' },
E: { threat: 'Elevation of Privilege', mitigation: 'Decoupled Open Policy Agent (OPA) Checks' }
};💡STRIDE threat modeling mitigation mapping for authentication pipelines.
🎯 Interview Key Takeaway
Apply STRIDE threat modeling to systematically evaluate Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Info Disclosure, DoS, and Elevation of Privilege.
#STRIDE#Threat Modeling#Security Architecture#Audit#Senior
Back to all Authentication & Authorization Questions→