Microsoft | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

A "by-design flaw" uncovered in Microsoft Azure could be exploited by attackers to gain access to storage accounts, move laterally in the environment, and even execute remote code. "It is possible to abuse and leverage Microsoft Storage Accounts by manipulating Azure Functions to steal access-tokens of higher privilege identities, move laterally, potentially access critical business assets, and execute remote code (RCE)," Orca said in a new  report  shared with The Hacker News. The exploitation path that underpins this attack is a mechanism called  Shared Key authorization , which is enabled by default on storage accounts. According to Microsoft, Azure generates two 512-bit storage account access keys when creating a storage account. These keys can be used to authorize access to data via Shared Key authorization, or via SAS tokens that are signed with the shared key. "Storage account access keys provide full access to the configuration of a storage accoun

The Iranian nation-state group known as  MuddyWater  has been observed carrying out destructive attacks on hybrid environments under the guise of a ransomware operation. That's according to new findings from the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team, which discovered the threat actor targeting both on-premises and cloud infrastructures in partnership with another emerging activity cluster dubbed  DEV-1084 . "While the threat actors attempted to masquerade the activity as a standard ransomware campaign, the unrecoverable actions show destruction and disruption were the ultimate goals of the operation," the tech giant  revealed  Friday. MuddyWater  is the name assigned to an  Iran-based actor  that the U.S. government has publicly connected to the country's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). It's been known to be active since at least 2017. It's also tracked by the cybersecurity community under various names, including Boggy Serpens, Cobalt Ulster,

Imagine a world where the software that powers your favorite apps, secures your online transactions, and keeps your digital life could be outsmarted and taken over by a cleverly disguised piece of code. This isn't a plot from the latest cyber-thriller; it's actually been a reality for years now. How this will change – in a positive or negative direction – as artificial intelligence (AI) takes on a larger role in software development is one of the big uncertainties related to this brave new world. In an era where AI promises to revolutionize how we live and work, the conversation about its security implications cannot be sidelined. As we increasingly rely on AI for tasks ranging from mundane to mission-critical, the question is no longer just, "Can AI  boost cybersecurity ?" (sure!), but also "Can AI  be hacked? " (yes!), "Can one use AI  to hack? " (of course!), and "Will AI  produce secure software ?" (well…). This thought leadership article is about the latter. Cydrill  (a

Microsoft said it teamed up with Fortra and Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Health-ISAC) to tackle the abuse of Cobalt Strike by cybercriminals to distribute malware, including ransomware. To that end, the tech giant's Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) revealed that it secured a  court order  in the U.S. to "remove illegal, legacy copies of Cobalt Strike so they can no longer be used by cybercriminals." While Cobalt Strike, developed and maintained by Fortra (formerly HelpSystems), is a legitimate post-exploitation tool used for adversary simulation, illegal cracked versions of the software have been weaponized by threat actors over the years. Ransomware groups, in particular, have leveraged Cobalt Strike after obtaining initial access to a target environment to escalate privileges, lateral move across the network, and deploy file-encrypting malware. "The ransomware families associated with or deployed by cracked copies of Cobalt Strike have been link

Microsoft has announced plans to automatically block embedded files with "dangerous extensions" in OneNote following reports that the note-taking service is being  increasingly abused  for malware delivery. Up until now, users were shown a dialog warning them that opening such attachments could harm their computer and data, but it was possible to dismiss the prompt and open the files. That's going to change going forward. Microsoft said it intends to prevent users from directly opening an embedded file with a dangerous extension and display the message: "Your administrator has blocked your ability to open this file type in OneNote." The update is expected to start rolling out with Version 2304 later this month and only impacts OneNote for Microsoft 365 on devices running Windows. It does not affect other platforms, including macOS, Android, and iOS, as well as OneNote versions available on the web and for Windows 10. "By default, OneNote blocks the sa

Microsoft on Tuesday  unveiled   Security Copilot  in limited preview, marking its continued quest to embed AI-oriented features in an attempt to offer "end-to-end defense at machine speed and scale." Powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 generative AI and its own security-specific model, it's billed as a  security analysis tool  that enables cybersecurity analysts to quickly respond to threats, process signals, and assess risk exposure. To that end, it collates insights and data from various products like Microsoft Sentinel, Defender, and Intune to help security teams better understand their environment; determine if they are susceptible to known vulnerabilities and exploits; identify ongoing attacks, their scale, and receive remediation instructions; and summarize incidents. Users, for instance, can ask Security Copilot about suspicious user logins over a specific time period, or even employ it to create a PowerPoint presentation outlining an incident and its attack chain.

Microsoft has released an out-of-band update to address a privacy-defeating flaw in its screenshot editing tool for Windows 10 and Windows 11. The  issue , dubbed  aCropalypse , could enable malicious actors to recover edited portions of screenshots, potentially revealing sensitive information that may have been cropped out. Tracked as  CVE-2023-28303 , the vulnerability is rated 3.3 on the CVSS scoring system. It affects both the Snip & Sketch app on Windows 10 and the Snipping Tool on Windows 11. "The severity of this vulnerability is Low because successful exploitation requires uncommon user interaction and several factors outside of an attacker's control," Microsoft  said  in an advisory released on March 24, 2023. Successful exploitation requires that the following two prerequisites are met - The user must take a screenshot, save it to a file, modify the file (for example, crop it), and then save the modified file to the same location. The user must open

Microsoft on Friday shared guidance to help customers discover indicators of compromise (IoCs) associated with a recently patched Outlook vulnerability. Tracked as CVE-2023-23397 (CVSS score: 9.8), the  critical flaw  relates to a case of privilege escalation that could be exploited to steal NT LAN Manager (NTLM) hashes and stage a  relay attack  without requiring any user interaction. "External attackers could send specially crafted emails that will cause a connection from the victim to an untrusted location of attackers' control," the company  noted  in an advisory released this month. "This will leak the  Net-NTLMv2 hash  of the victim to the untrusted network which an attacker can then relay to another service and authenticate as the victim." The vulnerability was resolved by Microsoft as part of its  Patch Tuesday updates  for March 2023, but not before Russia-based threat actors weaponized the flaw in attacks targeting government, transportation, en

Any app that can improve business operations is quickly added to the SaaS stack. However, employees don't realize that this SaaS-to-SaaS connectivity, which typically takes place outside the view of the security team, significantly increases risk. Whether employees connect through Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Salesforce, or any other app, security teams have no way to quantify their exposure. These 'secondary' apps can be requesting an intrusive set of permissions or be malicious. Every click authorizing access may grant the right to edit or delete company files, send emails on behalf of the user, create new files, or otherwise handle data in a way that poses a profound threat to the organization's security. To handle the SaaS Security challenges, security teams need to address the entire SaaS ecosystem.  Today's SaaS security evolution has expanded SaaS security beyond simply preventing access. It extends far beyond securing the app. Today's orga

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday update for March 2023 is rolling out with remediations for a set of  80 security flaws , two of which have come under active exploitation in the wild. Eight of the 80 bugs are rated Critical, 71 are rated Important, and one is rated Moderate in severity. The updates are in  addition to 29 flaws  the tech giant fixed in its Chromium-based Edge browser in recent weeks. The two vulnerabilities that have come under active attack include a Microsoft Outlook privilege escalation flaw ( CVE-2023-23397 , CVSS score: 9.8) and a Windows SmartScreen security feature bypass ( CVE-2023-24880 , CVSS score: 5.1). CVE-2023-23397 is "triggered when an attacker sends a message with an extended MAPI property with a UNC path to an SMB (TCP 445) share on a threat actor-controlled server," Microsoft  said  in a standalone advisory. A threat actor could leverage this flaw by sending a specially crafted email, activating it automatically when it is retrieved and pr

An open source adversary-in-the-middle ( AiTM ) phishing kit has found a number of takers in the cybercrime world for its ability to orchestrate attacks at scale. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence team is tracking the threat actor behind the development of the kit under its emerging moniker  DEV-1101 . An  AiTM phishing attack  typically involves a threat actor attempting to steal and intercept a target's password and session cookies by deploying a proxy server between the user and the website. Such attacks are more effective owing to their ability to circumvent multi-factor authentication (MFA) protections, specifically time-based one-time passwords ( TOTPs ). DEV-1101, per the tech giant, is said to be the party behind several phishing kits that can be purchased or rented by other criminal actors, thereby reducing the effort and resources required to launch a phishing campaign. "The availability of such phishing kits for purchase by attackers is part of the industrial

An updated version of a botnet malware called  Prometei  has infected more than 10,000 systems worldwide since November 2022. The infections are both geographically indiscriminate and opportunistic, with a majority of the victims reported in Brazil, Indonesia, and Turkey. Prometei, first observed in 2016, is a modular botnet that features a large repertoire of components and several proliferation methods, some of which also include the  exploitation  of ProxyLogon Microsoft Exchange Server flaws. It's also notable for avoiding striking Russia, suggesting that the threat actors behind the operation are likely based in the country. The cross-platform botnet's motivations are financial, primarily leveraging its pool of infected hosts to mine cryptocurrency and harvest credentials. The latest variant of Prometei (called v3) improves upon its existing features to challenge forensic analysis and further burrow its access on victim machines, Cisco Talos  said  in a report share

An older version of Shein's  Android application  suffered from a bug that periodically captured and transmitted clipboard contents to a remote server. The Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team said it  discovered  the problem in  version 7.9.2  of the app that was released on December 16, 2021. The issue has since been addressed as of May 2022. Shein, originally named ZZKKO, is a Chinese online fast fashion retailer based in Singapore. The app, which is currently at version 9.0.0, has over 100 million downloads on the Google Play Store. The tech giant  said  it's not "specifically aware of any malicious intent behind the behavior," but noted that the function isn't necessary to perform tasks on the app. It further pointed out that launching the application after copying any content to the device clipboard automatically triggered an HTTP POST request containing the data to the server "api-service[.]shein[.]com." To mitigate such privacy risks, Goo

Microsoft on Tuesday released  security updates  to address 75 flaws spanning its product portfolio, three of which have come under active exploitation in the wild. The updates are in addition to 22 flaws the Windows maker  patched  in its Chromium-based Edge browser over the past month. Of the 75 vulnerabilities, nine are rated Critical and 66 are rated Important in severity. 37 out of 75 bugs are classified as remote code execution (RCE) flaws. The three zero-days of note that have been exploited are as follows - CVE-2023-21715  (CVSS score: 7.3) - Microsoft Office Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability CVE-2023-21823  (CVSS score: 7.8) - Windows Graphics Component Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability CVE-2023-23376  (CVSS score: 7.8) - Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability "The attack itself is carried out locally by a user with authentication to the targeted system," Microsoft said in advisory for CVE-2023-21715. "

An Iranian nation-state group sanctioned by the U.S. government has been attributed to the hack of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in early January 2023. Microsoft, which disclosed details of the incident, is tracking the activity cluster under its chemical element-themed moniker  NEPTUNIUM , which is an Iran-based company known as Emennet Pasargad. In January 2022, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)  tied  the state-backed cyber unit to a sophisticated influence campaign carried out to  interfere  with the 2020 presidential elections. Two Iranian nationals have been indicted for their role in the disinformation and threat campaign. Microsoft's disclosure comes after a "hacktivist" group named Holy Souls (now identified as NEPTUNIUM) claimed to be in possession of the personal information of more than 200,000 Charlie Hebdo customers, including their full names, telephone numbers, and home and email addresses. The breach, which allowed NEPTUNI

In a continuing sign that threat actors are adapting well to a  post-macro world , it has emerged that the use of Microsoft OneNote documents to deliver malware via phishing attacks is on the rise. Some of the notable malware families that are being distributed using this method include AsyncRAT,  RedLine Stealer , Agent Tesla,  DOUBLEBACK , Quasar RAT, XWorm,  Qakbot ,  BATLOADER , and  FormBook . Enterprise security firm Proofpoint said it detected over 50 campaigns leveraging OneNote attachments in the month of January 2023 alone. In some instances, the email phishing lures contain a OneNote file, which, in turn, embeds an HTA file that invokes a PowerShell script to retrieve a malicious binary from a remote server. Other scenarios entail the execution of a rogue VBScript that's embedded within the OneNote document and concealed behind an image that appears as a seemingly harmless button. The VBScript, for its part, is designed to drop a PowerShell script to run DOUBLEBACK

Microsoft on Tuesday said it took steps to disable fake Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) accounts that were used for creating malicious  OAuth  applications as part of a phishing campaign designed to breach organizations' cloud environments and steal email. "The applications created by these fraudulent actors were then used in a consent phishing campaign, which tricked users into granting permissions to the fraudulent apps," the tech giant  said . "This phishing campaign targeted a subset of customers primarily based in the U.K. and Ireland." Consent phishing is a  social engineering attack  wherein users are tricked into granting permissions to malicious cloud applications, which can then be weaponized to gain access to legitimate cloud services and sensitive user data. The Windows maker said it became aware of the campaign on December 15, 2022. It has since alerted affected customers via email, with the company noting that the threat actors abused the conse

The Russia-affiliated Sandworm used yet another wiper malware strain dubbed  NikoWiper  as part of an attack that took place in October 2022 targeting an energy sector company in Ukraine. "The NikoWiper is based on  SDelete , a command line utility from Microsoft that is used for securely deleting files," cybersecurity company ESET  revealed  in its latest APT Activity Report shared with The Hacker News. The Slovak cybersecurity firm said the attacks coincided with  missile strikes  orchestrated by the Russian armed forces aimed at the Ukrainian energy infrastructure, suggesting overlaps in objectives. The disclosure comes merely days after ESET attributed Sandworm to a Golang-based data wiper known as  SwiftSlicer  that was deployed against an unnamed Ukrainian entity on January 25, 2023. The advanced persistent threat (APT) group linked to Russia's foreign military intelligence agency GRU has also been implicated in a partially successful attack targeting national