Microsoft | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Microsoft has disclosed details of a large-scale malvertising campaign that's estimated to have impacted over one million devices globally as part of what it said is an opportunistic attack designed to steal sensitive information. The tech giant, which detected the activity in early December 2024, is tracking it under the broader umbrella Storm-0408, a moniker used for a set of threat actors that are known to distribute remote access or information-stealing malware via phishing, search engine optimization (SEO), or malvertising. "The attack originated from illegal streaming websites embedded with malvertising redirectors, leading to an intermediary website where the user was then redirected to GitHub and two other platforms," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said . "The campaign impacted a wide range of organizations and industries, including both consumer and enterprise devices, highlighting the indiscriminate nature of the attack." The most signifi...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Monday added five security flaws impacting software from Cisco, Hitachi Vantara, Microsoft Windows, and Progress WhatsUp Gold to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2023-20118 (CVSS score: 6.5) - A command injection vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Small Business RV Series routers that allows an authenticated, remote attacker to gain root-level privileges and access unauthorized data (Unpatched due to the routers reaching end-of-life status) CVE-2022-43939 (CVSS score: 8.6) - An authorization bypass vulnerability in Hitachi Vantara Pentaho BA Server that stems from the use of non-canonical URL paths for authorization decisions (Fixed in August 2024 with versions 9.3.0.2 and 9.4.0.1) CVE-2022-43769 (CVSS score: 8.8) - A special element injection vulnerability in Hitachi Vantara...

Threat actors have been exploiting a security vulnerability in Paragon Partition Manager's BioNTdrv.sys driver in ransomware attacks to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code. The zero-day flaw (CVE-2025-0289) is part of a set of five vulnerabilities that was discovered by Microsoft, according to the CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC). "These include arbitrary kernel memory mapping and write vulnerabilities, a null pointer dereference, insecure kernel resource access, and an arbitrary memory move vulnerability," CERT/CC said . In a hypothetical attack scenario, an adversary with local access to a Windows machine can exploit these shortcomings to escalate privileges or cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition by taking advantage of the fact that "BioNTdrv.sys" is signed by Microsoft. This could also pave the way for what's called a Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver ( BYOVD ) attack on systems where the driver is not installed, thereby allowing t...

SaaS Adoption is Skyrocketing, Resilience Hasn't Kept Pace SaaS platforms have revolutionized how businesses operate. They simplify collaboration, accelerate deployment, and reduce the overhead of managing infrastructure. But with their rise comes a subtle, dangerous assumption: that the convenience of SaaS extends to resilience. It doesn't. These platforms weren't built with full-scale data protection in mind . Most follow a shared responsibility model — wherein the provider ensures uptime and application security, but the data inside is your responsibility. In a world of hybrid architectures, global teams, and relentless cyber threats, that responsibility is harder than ever to manage. Modern organizations are being stretched across: Hybrid and multi-cloud environments with decentralized data sprawl Complex integration layers between IaaS, SaaS, and legacy systems Expanding regulatory pressure with steeper penalties for noncompliance Escalating ransomware threats and inside...

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is an amazing technology developed by Microsoft that lets you access and control another computer over a network. It's like having your office computer with you wherever you go. For businesses, this means IT staff can manage systems remotely, and employees can work from home or anywhere, making RDP a true game-changer in today's work environment. But here's the catch: because RDP is accessible over the internet, it's also a prime target for unethical hackers. If someone gains unauthorized access, they could potentially take over your system. That's why it's so important to secure RDP properly. Why IT Teams Depend on RDP, Despite the Risks More than 50 percent of Kaseya's small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) customers use RDP for daily operations due to its efficiency and flexibility: Reduces Costs and Downtime – IT teams can resolve technical issues remotely, eliminating travel expenses and delays. Supports B...

Microsoft on Thursday unmasked four of the individuals that it said were behind an Azure Abuse Enterprise scheme that involves leveraging unauthorized access to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) services in order to produce offensive and harmful content. The campaign, called LLMjacking, has targeted various AI offerings, including Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service. The tech giant is tracking the cybercrime network as Storm-2139. The individuals named are - Arian Yadegarnia aka "Fiz" of Iran, Alan Krysiak aka "Drago" of United Kingdom, Ricky Yuen aka "cg-dot" of Hong Kong, China, and Phát Phùng Tấn aka "Asakuri" of Vietnam "Members of Storm-2139 exploited exposed customer credentials scraped from public sources to unlawfully access accounts with certain generative AI services," Steven Masada, assistant general counsel for Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit (DCU), said . "They then altered the capabilities of ...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday placed two security flaws impacting Microsoft Partner Center and Synacor Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerabilities in question are as follows - CVE-2024-49035 (CVSS score: 8.7) - An improper access control vulnerability in Microsoft Partner Center that allows an attacker to escalate privileges. (Fixed in November 2024 ) CVE-2023-34192 (CVSS score: 9.0) - A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Synacor ZCS that allows a remote authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code via a crafted script to the /h/autoSaveDraft function. (Fixed in July 2023 with version 8.8.15 Patch 40) Last year, Microsoft acknowledged that CVE-2024-49035 had been exploited in the wild, but did not reveal any additional details on how it was weaponized in real-world attacks. There are currently no public repor...

Microsoft has released security updates to address two Critical-rated flaws impacting Bing and Power Pages, including one that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerabilities are listed below - CVE-2025-21355 (CVSS score: 8.6) - Microsoft Bing Remote Code Execution Vulnerability CVE-2025-24989 (CVSS score: 8.2) - Microsoft Power Pages Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability "Missing Authentication for Critical Function in Microsoft Bing allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code over a network," the tech giant said in an advisory for CVE-2025-21355. No customer action is required. On the other hand, CVE-2025-24989 concerns a case of improper access control in Power Pages , a low-code platform for creating, hosting, and managing secure business websites, that an unauthorized attacker could exploit to elevate privileges over a network and bypass user registration control. Microsoft, which credited its own employee Raj Kumar for flagging the vul...

Microsoft said it has discovered a new variant of a known Apple macOS malware called XCSSET as part of limited attacks in the wild. "Its first known variant since 2022, this latest XCSSET malware features enhanced obfuscation methods, updated persistence mechanisms, and new infection strategies," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in a post shared on X. "These enhanced features add to this malware family's previously known capabilities, like targeting digital wallets, collecting data from the Notes app, and exfiltrating system information and files." XCSSET is a sophisticated modular macOS malware that's known to target users by infecting Apple Xcode projects. It was first documented by Trend Micro in August 2020. Subsequent iterations of the malware have been found to adapt to compromise newer versions of macOS as well as Apple's own M1 chipsets. In mid-2021, the cybersecurity company noted that XCSSET had been updated to exfiltrate d...

Microsoft is calling attention to an emerging threat cluster it calls Storm-2372 that has been attributed to a new set of cyber attacks aimed at a variety of sectors since August 2024. The attacks have targeted government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), information technology (IT) services and technology, defense, telecommunications, health, higher education, and energy/oil and gas sectors in Europe, North America, Africa, and the Middle East.  The threat actor, assessed with medium confidence to be aligned with Russian interests, victimology, and tradecraft, has been observed targeting users via messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Microsoft Teams by falsely claiming to be a prominent person relevant to the target in an attempt to build trust. "The attacks use a specific phishing technique called 'device code phishing' that tricks users to log into productivity apps while Storm-2372 actors capture the information from the log in (tokens) that they can us...

The threat actors behind the RansomHub ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) scheme have been observed leveraging now-patched security flaws in Microsoft Active Directory and the Netlogon protocol to escalate privileges and gain unauthorized access to a victim network's domain controller as part of their post-compromise strategy. "RansomHub has targeted over 600 organizations globally, spanning sectors such as healthcare, finance, government, and critical infrastructure, firmly establishing it as the most active ransomware group in 2024," Group-IB analysts said in an exhaustive report published this week. The ransomware group first emerged in February 2024, acquiring the source code associated with the now-defunct Knight (formerly Cyclops) RaaS gang from the RAMP cybercrime forum to speed up its operations. About five months later, an updated version of the locker was advertised on the illicit marketplace with capabilities to remotely encrypt data via SFTP protocol. It co...

Threat hunters have shed light on a new campaign targeting the foreign ministry of an unnamed South American nation with bespoke malware capable of granting remote access to infected hosts. The activity, detected in November 2024, has been attributed by Elastic Security Labs to a threat cluster it tracks as REF7707 . Some of the other targets include a telecommunications entity and a university, both located in Southeast Asia. "While the REF7707 campaign is characterized by a well-engineered, highly capable, novel intrusion set, the campaign owners exhibited poor campaign management and inconsistent evasion practices," security researchers Andrew Pease and Seth Goodwin said in a technical analysis. The exact initial access vector used in the attacks is currently not clear, although it has been observed that Microsoft's certutil application is used to download additional payloads from a web server associated with the Foreign Ministry. The certutil commands used to ...

Microsoft on Tuesday released fixes for 63 security flaws impacting its software products, including two vulnerabilities that it said has come under active exploitation in the wild. Of the 63 vulnerabilities, three are rated Critical, 57 are rated Important, one is rated Moderate, and two are rated Low in severity. This is aside from the 23 flaws Microsoft addressed in its Chromium-based Edge browser since the release of last month's Patch Tuesday update . The update is notable for fixing two actively exploited flaws - CVE-2025-21391 (CVSS score: 7.1) - Windows Storage Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability  CVE-2025-21418 (CVSS score: 7.8) - Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability "An attacker would only be able to delete targeted files on a system," Microsoft said in an alert for CVE-2025-21391. "This vulnerability does not allow disclosure of any confidential information, but could allow an attacker to delete d...

Microsoft is warning of an insecure practice wherein software developers are incorporating publicly disclosed ASP.NET machine keys from publicly accessible resources, thereby putting their applications in attackers' pathway. The tech giant's threat intelligence team said it observed limited activity in December 2024 that involved an unknown threat actor using a publicly available, static ASP.NET machine key to inject malicious code and deliver the Godzilla post-exploitation framework. It also noted that it has identified over 3,000 publicly disclosed keys that could be used for these types of attacks, which it's calling ViewState code injection attacks . "Whereas many previously known ViewState code injection attacks used compromised or stolen keys that are often sold on dark web forums, these publicly disclosed keys could pose a higher risk because they are available in multiple code repositories and could have been pushed into development code without modificat...

Microsoft has released patches to address two Critical-rated security flaws impacting Azure AI Face Service and Microsoft Account that could allow a malicious actor to escalate their privileges under certain conditions. The flaws are listed below - CVE-2025-21396 (CVSS score: 7.5) - Microsoft Account Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability CVE-2025-21415 (CVSS score: 9.9) - Azure AI Face Service Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability "Authentication bypass by spoofing in Azure AI Face Service allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network," Microsoft in an advisory for CVE-2025-21415, crediting an anonymous researcher for reporting the flaw. CVE-2025-21396, on the other hand, stems from a case of missing authorization that could permit an unauthorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network. A security researcher who goes by the alias Sugobet has been acknowledged for discovering it. The tech giant also noted that it's aware of the existen...