Microsoft | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Microsoft on Tuesday revealed that two security flaws impacting Windows NT LAN Manager ( NTLM ) and Task Scheduler have come under active exploitation in the wild. The security vulnerabilities are among the 90 security bugs the tech giant addressed as part of its Patch Tuesday update for November 2024. Of the 90 flaws, four are rated Critical, 85 are rated Important, and one is rated Moderate in severity. Fifty-two of the patched vulnerabilities are remote code execution flaws. The fixes are in addition to 31 vulnerabilities Microsoft resolved in its Chromium-based Edge browser since the release of the October 2024 Patch Tuesday update. The two vulnerabilities that have been listed as actively exploited are below - CVE-2024-43451 (CVSS score: 6.5) - Windows NTLM Hash Disclosure Spoofing Vulnerability CVE-2024-49039 (CVSS score: 8.8) - Windows Task Scheduler Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability "This vulnerability discloses a user's NTLMv2 hash to the attacker who c...

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed new security flaws impacting Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop that could be exploited to achieve unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) The issue, per findings from watchTowr , is rooted in the Session Recording component that allows system administrators to capture user activity, and record keyboard and mouse input, along with a video stream of the desktop for audit, compliance, and troubleshooting purposes. Particularly, the vulnerability exploits the "combination of a carelessly-exposed MSMQ instance with misconfigured permissions that leverages BinaryFormatter can be reached from any host via HTTP to perform unauthenticated RCE," security researcher Sina Kheirkhah said. The vulnerability details are listed below - CVE-2024-8068 (CVSS score: 5.1) - Privilege escalation to NetworkService Account access CVE-2024-8069 (CVSS score: 5.1) - Limited remote code execution with the privilege of a NetworkService Account acces...

It's time once again to pay our respects to the once-famous cybersecurity solutions whose usefulness died in the past year. The cybercriminal world collectively mourns the loss of these solutions and the easy access they provide to victim organizations. These solutions, though celebrated in their prime, succumbed to the twin forces of time and advancing threats. Much like a tribute to celebrities lost in the past year, this article will look back at a few of cybersecurity's brightest stars that went dark in the past year.  1. Legacy Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Cause of Death: Compromised by sophisticated phishing, man-in-the-middle (MitM), SIM-swapping, and MFA prompt bombing attacks. The superstar of access security for more than twenty years, legacy MFA solutions enjoyed broad adoption followed by almost-universal responsibility for cybersecurity failures leading to successful ransomware attacks. These outdated solutions relied heavily on SMS or email-based codes o...

An ongoing threat campaign dubbed VEILDrive has been observed taking advantage of legitimate services from Microsoft, including Teams, SharePoint, Quick Assist, and OneDrive, as part of its modus operandi. "Leveraging Microsoft SaaS services — including Teams, SharePoint, Quick Assist, and OneDrive — the attacker exploited the trusted infrastructures of previously compromised organizations to distribute spear-phishing attacks and store malware," Israeli cybersecurity company Hunters said in a new report. "This cloud-centric strategy allowed the threat actor to avoid detection by conventional monitoring systems." Hunters said it discovered the campaign in September 2024 after it responded to a cyber incident targeting a critical infrastructure organization in the United States. It did not disclose the name of the company, instead giving it the designation "Org C." The activity is believed to have commenced a month prior, with the attack culminating i...

Microsoft is further delaying the release of its controversial Recall feature for Windows Copilot+ PCs, stating it's taking the time to improve the experience. The development was first reported by The Verge. The artificial intelligence-powered tool was initially slated for a preview release starting in October. "We are committed to delivering a secure and trusted experience with Recall," the company said in an updated statement released Thursday. "To ensure we deliver on these important updates, we're taking additional time to refine the experience before previewing it with Windows Insiders. Originally planned for October, Recall will now be available for preview with Windows Insiders on Copilot+ PCs by December" Microsoft unveiled Recall earlier this May, describing it as a way for users to explore a "visual timeline" of their screens over time and help find things from apps, websites, images, and documents. The search experience was meant...

Microsoft has disclosed details about a now-patched security flaw in Apple's Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) framework in macOS that has likely come under exploitation to get around a user's privacy preferences and access data. The shortcoming, codenamed HM Surf by the tech giant, is tracked as CVE-2024-44133 (CVSS score: 5.5). It was addressed by Apple as part of macOS Sequoia 15 by removing the vulnerable code. HM Surf "involves removing the TCC protection for the Safari browser directory and modifying a configuration file in the said directory to gain access to the user's data, including browsed pages, the device's camera, microphone, and location, without the user's consent," Jonathan Bar Or of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said . Microsoft said the new protections are limited to Apple's Safari browser, and that it's working with other major browser vendors to further explore the benefits of hardening local configuration file...

Microsoft has released security updates to fix a total of 118 vulnerabilities across its software portfolio, two of which have come under active exploitation in the wild. Of the 118 flaws, three are rated Critical, 113 are rated Important, and two are rated Moderate in severity. The Patch Tuesday update doesn't include the 25 additional flaws that the tech giant addressed in its Chromium-based Edge browser over the past month. Five of the vulnerabilities are listed as publicly known at the time of release, with two of them coming under active exploitation as a zero-day - CVE-2024-43572 (CVSS score: 7.8) - Microsoft Management Console Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (Exploitation detected) CVE-2024-43573 (CVSS score: 6.5) - Windows MSHTML Platform Spoofing Vulnerability (Exploitation Detected) CVE-2024-43583 (CVSS score: 7.8) - Winlogon Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability CVE-2024-20659 (CVSS score: 7.1) - Windows Hyper-V Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability CVE...

Microsoft is warning of cyber attack campaigns that abuse legitimate file hosting services such as SharePoint, OneDrive, and Dropbox that are widely used in enterprise environments as a defense evasion tactic. The end goal of the campaigns are broad and varied, allowing threat actors to compromise identities and devices and conduct business email compromise ( BEC ) attacks, which ultimately result in financial fraud, data exfiltration, and lateral movement to other endpoints. The weaponization of legitimate internet services (LIS) is an increasingly popular risk vector adopted by adversaries to blend in with legitimate network traffic in a manner such that it often bypasses traditional security defenses and complicates attribution efforts. The approach is also called living-off-trusted-sites (LOTS), as it leverages the trust and familiarity of these services to sidestep email security guardrails and deliver malware. Microsoft said it has been observing a new trend in phishing c...

Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Thursday announced the seizure of 107 internet domains used by state-sponsored threat actors with ties to Russia to facilitate computer fraud and abuse in the country. "The Russian government ran this scheme to steal Americans' sensitive information, using seemingly legitimate email accounts to trick victims into revealing account credentials," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. The activity has been attributed to a threat actor called COLDRIVER , which is also known by the names Blue Callisto, BlueCharlie (or TAG-53), Calisto (alternately spelled Callisto), Dancing Salome, Gossamer Bear, Iron Frontier, Star Blizzard (formerly SEABORGIUM), TA446, and UNC4057. Active since at least 2012, the group is assessed to be an operational unit within Center 18 of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). In December 2023, the U.K. and U.S. governments sanctioned two members of the group – Aleksandrovich Peretyat...

The threat actor known as Storm-0501 has targeted government, manufacturing, transportation, and law enforcement sectors in the U.S. to stage ransomware attacks. The multi-stage attack campaign is designed to compromise hybrid cloud environments and perform lateral movement from on-premises to cloud environment, ultimately resulting in data exfiltration, credential theft, tampering, persistent backdoor access, and ransomware deployment, Microsoft said. "Storm-0501 is a financially motivated cybercriminal group that uses commodity and open-source tools to conduct ransomware operations," according to the tech giant's threat intelligence team. Active since 2021, the threat actor has a history of targeting education entities with Sabbath (54bb47h) ransomware before evolving into a ransomware-as-a-service ( RaaS ) affiliate delivering various ransomware payloads over the years, including Hive, BlackCat (ALPHV), Hunters International, LockBit, and Embargo ransomware. A n...

Microsoft has revealed that a financially motivated threat actor has been observed using a ransomware strain called INC for the first time to target the healthcare sector in the U.S. The tech giant's threat intelligence team is tracking the activity under the name Vanilla Tempest (formerly DEV-0832). "Vanilla Tempest receives hand-offs from GootLoader infections by the threat actor Storm-0494, before deploying tools like the Supper backdoor, the legitimate AnyDesk remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool, and the MEGA data synchronization tool," it said in a series of posts shared on X. In the next step, the attackers proceed to carry out lateral movement through Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and then use the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Provider Host to deploy the INC ransomware payload. The Windows maker said Vanilla Tempest has been active since at least July 2022, with previous attacks targeting education, healthcare, IT, and manufacturing secto...

Microsoft on Tuesday disclosed that three new security flaws impacting the Windows platform have come under active exploitation as part of its Patch Tuesday update for September 2024. The monthly security release addresses a total of 79 vulnerabilities, of which seven are rated Critical, 71 are rated Important, and one is rated Moderate in severity. This is aside from 26 flaws that the tech giant resolved in its Chromium-based Edge browser since last month's Patch Tuesday release. The three vulnerabilities that have been weaponized in a malicious context are listed below, alongside a bug that Microsoft is treating as exploited - CVE-2024-38014 (CVSS score: 7.8) - Windows Installer Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability CVE-2024-38217 (CVSS score: 5.4) - Windows Mark-of-the-Web (MotW) Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability CVE-2024-38226 (CVSS score: 7.3) - Microsoft Publisher Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability CVE-2024-43491 (CVSS score: 9.8) - Microsoft Windows Updat...

Eight vulnerabilities have been uncovered in Microsoft applications for macOS that an adversary could exploit to gain elevated privileges or access sensitive data by circumventing the operating system's permissions-based model, which revolves around the Transparency, Consent, and Control ( TCC ) framework. "If successful, the adversary could gain any privileges already granted to the affected Microsoft applications," Cisco Talos said . "For example, the attacker could send emails from the user account without the user noticing, record audio clips, take pictures, or record videos without any user interaction." The shortcomings span various applications such as Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel PowerPoint, and OneNote. The cybersecurity company said malicious libraries could be injected into these applications and gain their entitlements and user-granted permissions, which could then be weaponized for extracting sensitive information depending on the access granted ...