Forge a software WebAuthn authenticator (attestation: none)

When it applies

• The app authenticates with WebAuthn/FIDO2 (register + authenticate "ceremonies", navigator.credentials.create/get, client bundles calling /register/begin,/register/finish,/auth/begin,/auth/finish).
• register/begin returns creation options with "attestation":"none" (or the RP never validates the attestation certificate chain). None-attestation means the server does NOT check that a real hardware authenticator vouched for the key — so a key you generate in software is accepted.
• You can start registration: either registration is open, or you can leak an invite/enrollment token (see tech-mongo-agg-facet-bypass and NoSQL-injection notes).

Why it works

WebAuthn security rests on the authenticator signing a server challenge with a private key. With attestation:none, the server trusts whatever public key the client submits at register/finish (no proof it came from a certified device). You therefore generate your own keypair, register its public key, then at auth/finish sign the server's challenge with the matching private key — a completely valid assertion, because it is your key.

Method (Python: cryptography + cbor2, one cookie session)

1. POST /register/begin {invite_token} → options (challenge, rp.id, user.id, pubKeyCredParams incl. -7 = ES256, attestation:"none").
2. Build the authenticator:
   • EC P-256 keypair. COSE public key = cbor2.dumps({1:2, 3:-7, -1:1, -2:x, -3:y}) (kty EC2, alg ES256, crv P-256, x, y — each coord 32 bytes big-endian).
   • authData = sha256(rp.id) + flags + signCount(4B) + attestedCredentialData where flags = 0x45 (UP|UV|AT) and attestedCredentialData = aaguid(16×00) + credIdLen(2B) + credId(random) + coseKey.
   • attestationObject = cbor2.dumps({"fmt":"none","attStmt":{}, "authData":authData}).
   • clientDataJSON = {"type":"webauthn.create","challenge":<opts.challenge as-is>, "origin":"http(s)://<rp host:port>","crossOrigin":false}.
3. POST /register/finish with {id:b64u(credId), rawId:b64u(credId), type:"public-key", response:{clientDataJSON:b64u, attestationObject:b64u}} → credential created.
4. POST /auth/begin → new challenge.
   • clientDataJSON = {"type":"webauthn.get","challenge":<achal>,"origin":<origin>}.
   • authData = sha256(rp.id) + flags(0x05 UP|UV) + signCount.
   • signature = privkey.sign(authData + sha256(clientDataJSON), ec.ECDSA(SHA256)) (cryptography emits DER — exactly what ES256 assertions use).
   • userHandle = b64u(<user.id bytes>) (needed for discoverable/resident-key flows).
5. POST /auth/finish with those fields → authenticated session cookie. Use it to hit the app (dashboard/account) and grab the flag.

Tools

python3 with cryptography and cbor2 (both common). fido2 (python-fido2) has a built-in software authenticator if you prefer a library. All base64 is base64url, no padding. A ready reference implementation: aegis/exploit-dev/pwn.py.

Gotchas

• Origin/rpId must match what the server expects, including scheme and port (http://host:3000), and rp.id is the host WITHOUT the port. sha256(rp.id) uses the host only.
• challenge in clientDataJSON is the same base64url string the server sent (it's just re-encoding the same bytes) — don't double-decode/re-pad it.
• Resident-key/usernameless flows: auth/begin returns empty allowCredentials; you MUST send the correct userHandle at auth/finish.
• If the RP validates attestation for real ("direct"/known AAGUIDs with trusted roots), this won't work — you'd need a genuine chain. none (or a lenient verifier) is the tell.

Verify success

register/finish returns 200/created and auth/finish returns 200 and sets an authenticated session cookie that unlocks previously-redirected pages (e.g. /dashboard stops 302-ing to /login).

Learned on

AEGIS lab, 2026-08 — leaked invite token via Mongo aggregation injection, then registered a software P-256 authenticator (attestation "none") as operator op-2026-0042. Full worked example in aegis/notes.md (§6) and aegis/exploit-dev/pwn.py.