The God Mode Vulnerability That Should Kill "Trust Microsoft" Overview Security researcher Dirk-Jan Mollema disclosed CVE-2025–55241, a catastrophic vulnerability in Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) that could have allowed an attacker, starting from a single test tenant token, to gain complete administrative control over every Microsoft Entra ID tenant globally—including Fortune 500 companies and startups alike. What Happened? The flaw arose from a validation issue in Microsoft's "Actor tokens," used for service-to-service communication. These tokens could be exploited across tenant boundaries, granting attackers undetectable access to: User data Group memberships Application permissions BitLocker keys Attackers could create or take over Global Admin accounts without detection. This scenario resembles having a master key that opens every door and also disables all security monitoring. Full technical details by Dirk-Jan Mollema Broader Context: A Pattern of Trust Failures This incident joins other major breaches in "trusted" platforms: Okta's customer support system breach Cisco's backdoor administration exploits BeyondTrust's remote support SaaS compromise Critical zero-trust flaws in Check Point, Zscaler, and Netskope These trusted vendors failed despite expertise, resources, and certificates. The invisibility of such vulnerabilities to customers highlights how impossible it is to audit or secure what must be blindly trusted. The Supply Chain Risk Microsoft's platform compromises can cascade, affecting all connected tenants. Attack chains could rapidly map and control the majority of Entra ID tenants worldwide. Microsoft's own tenant, due to extensive guest user relationships, would be a prime early victim. Core Problem: Authority Concentration Authority: The power to grant access and enforce security within a system. The vulnerability is less about a technical bug and more about centralized trust in one entity holding "god mode" authority. Even zero-trust security keeps this centralized authority in identity providers, which become single points of catastrophic failure. The Path Forward: Authorityless Security Characteristics of an authorityless system: No single entity, including vendors or admins, can access or override sensitive data alone. Access requires distributed verification and cryptographic consensus among multiple independent nodes. Cryptographic keys are fragmented and never fully exist in one place. Even if some nodes are compromised, attackers cannot forge tokens or decrypt data. Such systems eliminate Actor tokens and god-mode privileges. Benefits: Breaches no longer lead to catastrophic consequences. Security becomes mathematically verifiable rather than based on blind trust. Vendors prove trustworthiness by removing the need for trust. Simplifies compliance and reduces liability. Final Thoughts and Call to Action Despite spending over $300 billion annually on cybersecurity, breaches cause trillions in damage—reflecting a failed security architecture. Trusting any single vendor with ultimate authority “just because” is no longer tenable. Microsoft fixed this specific vulnerability, but centralized architecture enabling such a flaw remains. The question is not if another similar vulnerability will be found, but when and by whom. The future lies in distributed, authorityless security architectures leveraging advances in cryptography. About Tide Foundation's Approach Tide Foundation develops and promotes authorityless identity and access management based on peer-reviewed research in "ineffable cryptography." Their platform, TideCloak, demonstrates practical, scalable systems where