Okta has released emergency patches for a critical vulnerability (CVE-2025-10099) affecting its standard authentication API. The flaw allows an attacker with a valid username to bypass password and MFA requirements under specific high-load conditions due to a race condition in the validation logic.
Business Impact
This is a catastrophic risk for organizations relying on Okta for Single Sign-On (SSO). It potentially allows attackers to gain full access to all integrated corporate applications (email, cloud storage, CRM, HR systems) as any user, without needing credentials.
Why It Happened
A complex race condition in the session token generation process could be triggered deliberately by attackers flooding the authentication service, causing it to fail open and issue a valid token without completing all security checks.
Recommended Executive Action
Treat this as an immediate emergency. Direct IT to verify with Okta that your tenant is patched (for cloud customers) or apply patches immediately (for on-prem Access Gateway). Mandate an immediate review of all admin logins from the past 24 hours for anomalies.
Hashtags: #Okta #Vulnerability #IAM #SSO #MFA #AuthenticationBypass #CyberSecurity #InfoSec