Active Directory | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Active Directory (AD) is a powerful authentication and directory service used by organizations worldwide. With this ubiquity and power comes the potential for abuse. Insider threats offer some of the most potentials for destruction. Many internal users have over-provisioned access and visibility into the internal network. Insiders' level of access and trust in a network leads to unique vulnerabilities. Network security often focuses on keeping a threat actor out, not on existing users' security and potential vulnerabilities. Staying on top of potential threats means protecting against inside and outside threats. Active Directory Vulnerabilities From the outside, a properly configured AD domain offers a secure authentication and authorization solution. But with complex social engineering and phishing email attacks, an existing AD user can become compromised. Once inside, threat actors have many options to attack Active Directory. Insecure Devices With "Bring Your Own

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday moved to add a  critical SAP security flaw  to its  Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog , based on evidence of active exploitation. The issue in question is  CVE-2022-22536 , which has received the highest possible risk score of 10.0 on the CVSS vulnerability scoring system and was addressed by SAP as part of its Patch Tuesday updates for February 2022. Described as an HTTP request smuggling vulnerability, the shortcoming impacts the following product versions - SAP Web Dispatcher (Versions - 7.49, 7.53, 7.77, 7.81, 7.85, 7.22EXT, 7.86, 7.87) SAP Content Server (Version - 7.53) SAP NetWeaver and ABAP Platform (Versions - KERNEL 7.22, 8.04, 7.49, 7.53, 7.77, 7.81, 7.85, 7.86, 7.87, KRNL64UC 8.04, 7.22, 7.22EXT, 7.49, 7.53, KRNL64NUC 7.22, 7.22EXT, 7.49) "An unauthenticated attacker can prepend a victim's request with arbitrary data, allowing for function execution impersonating the victim

Follow this real-life network attack simulation, covering 6 steps from Initial Access to Data Exfiltration. See how attackers remain undetected with the simplest tools and why you need multiple choke points in your defense strategy. Surprisingly, most network attacks are not exceptionally sophisticated, technologically advanced, or reliant on zero-day tools that exploit edge-case vulnerabilities. Instead, they often use commonly available tools and exploit multiple vulnerability points. By simulating a real-world network attack, security teams can test their detection systems, ensure they have multiple choke points in place, and demonstrate the value of networking security to leadership. In this article, we demonstrate a real-life attack that could easily occur in many systems. The attack simulation was developed based on the MITRE ATT&CK framework, Atomic Red Team,  Cato Networks ' experience in the field, and public threat intel. In the end, we explain why a holistic secur

The malware loader known as Bumblebee is being increasingly co-opted by threat actors associated with BazarLoader, TrickBot, and IcedID in their campaigns to breach target networks for post-exploitation activities. "Bumblebee operators conduct intensive reconnaissance activities and redirect the output of executed commands to files for exfiltration," Cybereason researchers Meroujan Antonyan and Alon Laufer  said  in a technical write-up. Bumblebee  first came to light in March 2022 when Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) unmasked the activities of an initial access broker dubbed  Exotic Lily  with ties to the  TrickBot  and the larger  Conti  collectives. Typically delivered via initial access acquired through spear-phishing campaigns, the modus operandi has since been tweaked by eschewing macro-laced documents in favor of ISO and LNK files, primarily in response to Microsoft's decision to  block macros by default . "Distribution of the malware is done

Although there is a greater awareness of cybersecurity threats than ever before, it is becoming increasingly difficult for IT departments to get their security budgets approved. Security budgets seem to shrink each year and IT pros are constantly being asked to do more with less. Even so, the situation may not be hopeless. There are some things that IT pros can do to improve the chances of getting their security budgets approved.  Presenting the Problem in a Compelling Way If you want to get your proposed security budget approved, you will need to present security problems in a compelling way. While those who are in charge of the organization's finances are likely aware of the need for good security, they have probably also seen enough examples of "a security solution in search of a problem" to make them skeptical of security spending requests. If you want to persuade those who control the money, then you will need to convince them of three things: You are trying to

In any organization, there are certain accounts that are designated as being privileged. These privileged accounts differ from standard user accounts in that they have permission to perform actions that go beyond what standard users can do. The actions vary based on the nature of the account but can include anything from setting up new user accounts to shutting down mission-critical systems. Privileged accounts are essential tools. Without these accounts, the IT staff would be unable to do its job. At the same time, privileged accounts can pose a serious threat to an organization's security. Added risk of a privileged account  Imagine for a moment that a hacker manages to steal a standard user's password and is able to log in as that user. Even though the hacker would have access to certain resources at that point, they would be constrained by the user's privileges (or lack thereof). In other words, the hacker would be able to browse the Internet, open some applications, and access

Microsoft is urging customers to patch two security vulnerabilities in Active Directory domain controllers that it  addressed in November  following the availability of a proof-of-concept (PoC) tool on December 12. The two vulnerabilities — tracked as  CVE-2021-42278  and  CVE-2021-42287  — have a severity rating of 7.5 out of a maximum of 10 and concern a privilege escalation flaw affecting the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) component. Credited with discovering and reporting both the bugs is Andrew Bartlett of Catalyst IT. Active Directory is a  directory service  that runs on Microsoft Windows Server and is used for identity and access management. Although the tech giant marked the shortcomings as " exploitation Less Likely " in its assessment, the public disclosure of the PoC has prompted renewed calls for applying the fixes to mitigate any potential exploitation by threat actors. While CVE-2021-42278 enables an attacker to tamper with the SAM-Account-Name

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed an unpatched security vulnerability in the protocol used by Microsoft Azure Active Directory that potential adversaries could abuse to stage undetected brute-force attacks. "This flaw allows threat actors to perform single-factor brute-force attacks against Azure Active Directory ( Azure AD ) without generating sign-in events in the targeted organization's tenant," researchers from Secureworks Counter Threat Unit (CTU)  said  in a report published on Wednesday. Azure Active Directory is Microsoft's enterprise cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) solution designed for single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication. It's also a core component of Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), with capabilities to provide authentication to other applications via OAuth. The weakness resides in the  Seamless Single Sign-On  feature that allows employees to automatically sign in when using their corporate devices that

Microsoft on Monday revealed new malware deployed by the hacking group behind the SolarWinds supply chain attack last December to deliver additional payloads and steal sensitive information from Active Directory Federation Services ( AD FS ) servers. The tech giant's Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) codenamed the "passive and highly targeted backdoor" FoggyWeb, making it the threat actor tracked as Nobelium's latest tool in a long list of cyber weaponry such as  Sunburst ,  Sunspot ,  Raindrop ,  Teardrop ,  GoldMax, GoldFinder, Sibot ,  Flipflop ,  NativeZone ,  EnvyScout, BoomBox, and VaporRage . "Once Nobelium obtains credentials and successfully compromises a server, the actor relies on that access to maintain persistence and deepen its infiltration using sophisticated malware and tools," MSTIC researchers  said . "Nobelium uses FoggyWeb to remotely exfiltrate the configuration database of compromised AD FS servers, decrypted token-signing cer

Microsoft's Active Directory is  said to be used by 95%  of Fortune 500. As a result, it is a prime target for attackers as they look to gain access to credentials in the organization, as compromised credentials provide one of the easiest ways for hackers to access your data. A key authentication technology that underpins Microsoft Active Directory is Kerberos. Unfortunately, hackers use many different attacks against Active Directory's implementation of the Kerberos authentication protocol. One of those is AS-REP Roasting. So what is AS-REP Roasting, and how can businesses protect themselves? What is Active Directory Kerberos? Kerberos was originally developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and centered around using tickets to establish trust. Microsoft's implementation of Kerberos found in Active Directory is based on Kerberos Network Authentication Service (V5) as defined in  RFC 4120 . However, Microsoft has added to and enhanced Kerberos with it

There are many different types of accounts in a typical Active Directory environment. These include user accounts, computer accounts, and a particular type of account called a  service account .  A service account is a special type of account that serves a specific purpose for services, and ultimately, applications in the environment. These special-purpose Active Directory accounts are also the subject of cybersecurity risks in the environment. What is a service account? What special privileges does it have on local systems? What cybersecurity risks can relate to service accounts used in the environment? How can IT admins find weak or non-expiring passwords used in Active Directory for service accounts? What is a Windows service? As mentioned at the outset, specific Active Directory accounts serve different purposes in Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS). You can assign Active Directory accounts as service accounts, a special-purpose account that most organizations create and

Today's admins certainly have plenty on their plates, and boosting ecosystem security remains a top priority. On-premises, and especially remote, accounts are gateways for accessing critical information. Password management makes this possible. After all, authentication should ensure that a user is whom they claim to be. This initial layer of security is crucial for protecting one's entire infrastructure. Unfortunately, the personal nature of passwords has its shortcomings. Passwords are easily forgotten. They may also be too simplistic; many companies don't enforce stringent password-creation requirements. This is where the Active Directory Password Policy comes in. Additionally, the following is achievable: Changing user passwords Recording password changes and storing them within a history log Active Directory accounts for any impactful changes across user accounts. We'll assess why and how administrators might leverage these core features. Why change user

Creating workflows around verifying password resets can be challenging for organizations, especially since many have shifted work due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. With the numbers of cyberattacks against businesses exploding and compromised credentials often being the culprit, companies have to bolster security around resetting passwords on user accounts. How can organizations bolster the security of password resets for remote workers? One security workflow might involve having manager approval before IT helpdesk technicians can change a remote worker's password. In this way, the user's manager is involved in the process. Additionally, some organizations might opt to allow managers themselves the ability to change end-user passwords. How can this be configured in Active Directory? Also, is there a more seamless solution for requiring manager approval for password resets? Why password reset security is critical This past year has undoubtedly created many IT helpdesk st