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Before yesterdayMicrosoft Security Response Center

Update on Microsoft Actions Following Attack by Nation State Actor Midnight Blizzard

This blog provides an update on the nation-state attack that was detected by the Microsoft Security Team on January 12, 2024. As we shared, on January 19, the security team detected this attack on our corporate email systems and immediately activated our response process. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence investigation identified the threat actor as Midnight Blizzard, the Russian state-sponsored actor also known as NOBELIUM.

Faye’s Journey: From Security PM to Diversity Advocate at Microsoft

29 February 2024 at 08:00
Faye, a veteran at Microsoft for 22 years, has had a career as varied as it is long. Her journey began in 2002 as the first desktop security Project Manager (PM) in Microsoft IT. From there, she transitioned into owning a deployment team that deployed to desktops and handled operations for Office’s first few customers.

Microsoft boosts its Microsoft 365 Insider Builds on Windows Bounty Program with higher awards and an expanded scope

27 February 2024 at 08:00
Starting today, we are doubling the maximum bounty award for the Microsoft 365 Insider Bug Bounty Program to $30,000 USD for high impact scenarios, such as unauthenticated non-sandboxed code execution with no user interaction. We are also expanding the scope of our bounty program to include more vulnerability types and products.

From Indiana Jones to Cybersecurity: The Inspiring Journey of Devin

26 February 2024 at 08:00
As a young boy, Devin found himself captivated by the adventures of Indiana Jones, the whip-wielding archaeologist from the VHS movies his grandfather showed him. The thrill of unearthing history and the allure of the unknown ignited a spark in Devin, leading him to dream of becoming an archaeologist. However, as he grew older and learned more about the realities of archaeology, he realized that his passion lay elsewhere.

An Obsession With Impact: The Inspiring Journey of a Dreamer That Led to a Career at Microsoft

20 February 2024 at 08:00
Bruce’s story unfolds in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a young boy, he had an ambitious dream of one day becoming the President of the United States. This aspiration remained his guiding star until he began his professional career after college. His mother, amused by his

New Security Advisory Tab Added to the Microsoft Security Update Guide

15 February 2024 at 08:00
Today, we are adding a new Security Advisory tab to the Security Update Guide to meet our customers’ needs for a unified and authoritative source for the latest public information about Microsoft security updates and issues. We are continuously listening to feedback from users of the Security Update Guide. Our goal is to find new and improved ways to help customers manage security risks and keep their systems protected.

Congratulations to the Top MSRC 2023 Q4 Security Researchers!

30 January 2024 at 08:00
Congratulations to all the researchers recognized in this quarter’s Microsoft Researcher Recognition Program leaderboard! Thank you to everyone for your hard work and continued partnership to secure customers. The top three researchers of the 2023 Q4 Security Researcher Leaderboard are Yuki Chen, Wei, VictorV! Check out the full list of researchers recognized this quarter here.

Microsoft Actions Following Attack by Nation State Actor Midnight Blizzard

19 January 2024 at 08:00
The Microsoft security team detected a nation-state attack on our corporate systems on January 12, 2024, and immediately activated our response process to investigate, disrupt malicious activity, mitigate the attack, and deny the threat actor further access. Microsoft has identified the threat actor as Midnight Blizzard, the Russian state-sponsored actor also known as Nobelium.

BlueHat India Call for Papers is Now Open!

8 January 2024 at 08:00
You asked for it and it’s finally here! The inaugural BlueHat India conference will be held May 16-17th, 2024, in Hyderabad, India! This intimate conference will bring together a unique blend of security researchers and responders, who come together as peers to exchange ideas, experiences, and learnings in the interest of creating a safer and more secure world for all.

Microsoft addresses App Installer abuse

28 December 2023 at 08:00
Summary In recent months, Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed threat actors leveraging social engineering and phishing techniques to target Windows OS users and utilizing the ms-appinstaller URI scheme. We have addressed and mitigated this malicious activity by turning off ms-appinstaller by default. Additionally, Microsoft has coordinated with Certificate Authorities to revoke the abused code signing certificates utilized by malware samples we have identified.

Azure Serial Console Attack and Defense - Part 2

19 December 2023 at 08:00
This is the second installment of the Azure Serial Console blog, which provides insights to improve defenders’ preparedness when investigating Azure Serial Console activity on Azure Linux virtual machines. While the first blog post discussed various tracing activities, such as using Azure activity and Sysmon logs on Windows virtual machines to trace serial console activity, this blog outlines how to enable logging for Azure Linux virtual machines using Sysmon for Linux to capture and how to send these events to a log analytics workspace.

Introducing the Microsoft Defender Bounty Program

21 November 2023 at 08:00
We are excited to announce the new Microsoft Defender Bounty Program with awards of up to $20,000 USD. The Microsoft Defender brand encompasses a variety of products and services designed to enhance the security of the Microsoft customer experience. The Microsoft Defender Bounty Program invites researchers across the globe to identify vulnerabilities in Defender products and services and share them with our team.

Celebrating ten years of the Microsoft Bug Bounty program and more than $60M awarded

20 November 2023 at 08:00
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Microsoft Bug Bounty Program, an essential part of our proactive strategy to protect customers from security threats. Since its inception in 2013, Microsoft has awarded more than $60 million to thousands of security researchers from 70 countries. These individuals have discovered and reported vulnerabilities under Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure, aiding Microsoft in navigating the continuously evolving security threat landscape and emerging technologies.

Reflecting on 20 years of Patch Tuesday

17 November 2023 at 08:00
This year is a landmark moment for Microsoft as we observe the 20th anniversary of Patch Tuesday updates, an initiative that has become a cornerstone of the IT world’s approach to cybersecurity. Originating from the Trustworthy Computing memo by Bill Gates in 2002, our unwavering commitment to protecting customers continues to this day and is reflected in Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative announced this month.

Microsoft guidance regarding credentials leaked to GitHub Actions Logs through Azure CLI

14 November 2023 at 08:00
Summary The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) was made aware of a vulnerability where Azure Command-Line Interface (CLI) could expose sensitive information, including credentials, through GitHub Actions logs. The researcher, from Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud, found that Azure CLI commands could be used to show sensitive data and output to Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) logs.

Congratulations to the Top MSRC 2023 Q3 Security Researchers!

16 October 2023 at 07:00
Congratulations to all the researchers recognized in this quarter’s Microsoft Researcher Recognition Program leaderboard! Thank you to everyone for your hard work and continued partnership to secure customers. The top three researchers of the 2023 Q3 Security Researcher Leaderboard are Wei, VictorV, and Anonymous! Check out the full list of researchers recognized this quarter here.

Introducing the Microsoft AI Bug Bounty Program featuring the AI-powered Bing experience

12 October 2023 at 07:00
Today at BlueHat we announced the new Microsoft AI bug bounty program with awards up to $15,000. This new bounty program features the AI-powered Bing experience as the first in scope product. The following products and integrations are eligible for bounty awards: AI-powered Bing experiences on bing.com in Browser (All major vendors are supported, including Bing Chat, Bing Chat for Enterprise, and Bing Image Creator) AI-powered Bing integration in Microsoft Edge (Windows), including Bing Chat for Enterprise AI-powered Bing integration in the Microsoft Start Application (iOS and Android) AI-powered Bing integration in the Skype Mobile Application (iOS and Android) Full details can be found on our bounty program website.

Microsoft Response to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks against HTTP/2

10 October 2023 at 07:00
Summary Beginning in September 2023, Microsoft was notified by industry partners about a newly identified Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack technique being used in the wild targeting HTTP/2 protocol. This vulnerability (CVE-2023-44487) impacts any internet exposed HTTP/2 endpoints. As an industry leader, Microsoft promptly opened an investigation and subsequently began working with industry partners for a coordinated disclosure and mitigation plan.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2023: Elevating Security Together

5 October 2023 at 07:00
As the 20th anniversary of Cybersecurity Awareness Month begins, I find myself reflecting on the strides made since its inception. The journey to enhance and improve cybersecurity is ongoing and extends beyond October. It’s not merely a technological challenge; it is fundamentally about people. It’s about the customers and communities that we at Microsoft work tirelessly to safeguard and defend.

Microsoft’s Response to Open-Source Vulnerabilities - CVE-2023-4863 and CVE-2023-5217

2 October 2023 at 07:00
Microsoft is aware and has released patches associated with the two Open-Source Software security vulnerabilities, CVE-2023-4863 and CVE-2023-5217. Through our investigation, we found that these affect a subset of our products and as of today, we have addressed them in our products as outlined below: CVE-2023-4863 Microsoft Edge Microsoft Teams for Desktop Skype for Desktop Webp Image Extensions (Released on Windows and updates through Microsoft Store) CVE-2023-5217

Journey Down Under: How Rocco Became Australia’s Premier Hacker

25 September 2023 at 07:00
Fun facts about Rocco Calvi (@TecR0c): Microsoft MVR: Rocco is a 2023 Microsoft Most Valuable Researcher. Fitness fanatic: Inspired by old-school body building and countless hours of chopping and carrying wood in the mountains during his youth, Rocco remains a fitness enthusiast, setting himself challenges and pushing his limits.

Microsoft mitigated exposure of internal information in a storage account due to overly-permissive SAS token

18 September 2023 at 07:00
Summary As part of a recent Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) report from Wiz.io, Microsoft investigated and remediated an incident involving a Microsoft employee who shared a URL for a blob store in a public GitHub repository while contributing to open-source AI learning models. This URL included an overly-permissive Shared Access Signature (SAS) token for an internal storage account.

Results of Major Technical Investigations for Storm-0558 Key Acquisition

6 September 2023 at 07:00
March 12, 2024 update As part of our continued commitment to transparency and trust outlined in Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative, we are providing further information as it relates to our ongoing investigation. This new information does not change the customer guidance we previously shared, nor have our ongoing investigations revealed additional impact to Microsoft or our customers.

Azure Serial Console Attack and Defense - Part 1

10 August 2023 at 07:00
Ever had a virtual machine crash? Azure Serial console is a great way to directly connect to your Virtual machine and debug what went wrong. Azure Serial Console is a feature that’s available for free for everyone. While the primary intent of this feature is to assist users debug their machine, there are several interesting ways to abuse the features and compromise sensitive information.

Congratulations to the MSRC 2023 Most Valuable Security Researchers!

8 August 2023 at 07:00
The Microsoft Researcher Recognition Program offers public thanks and recognition to security researchers who help protect our customers through discovering and sharing security vulnerabilities under Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure. Today, we are excited to recognize this year’s top 100 Most Valuable Researchers (MVRs) based on the total number of points earned for each valid report.

Updating our Vulnerability Severity Classification for AI Systems

8 August 2023 at 07:00
The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) is always looking for ways to provide clarity and transparency around how we assess the impact of vulnerabilities reported in our products and services. To this end, we are announcing the Microsoft Vulnerability Severity Classification for AI Systems, an update to Microsoft’s existing vulnerability severity classification (i.

Microsoft Bug Bounty Program Year in Review: $13.8M in Rewards

7 August 2023 at 07:00
We are thrilled to share the results of our collaboration with over 345 security researchers from +45 countries around the world in the past 12 months. Together, we have discovered and fixed more than a thousand potential security issues before they impacted our customers. In recognition of this valuable collaboration, we have awarded $13.

Microsoft mitigates Power Platform Custom Code information disclosure vulnerability

4 August 2023 at 07:00
Summary On 30 March 2023, Tenable informed Microsoft under Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) of a security issue concerning Power Platform Custom Connectors using Custom Code. This feature allows customers to write code for custom connectors. This issue has been fully addressed for all customers and no customer remediation action is required.

BlueHat October 2023 Call for Papers is Now Open!

As you may have seen on social media, the next BlueHat conference will be October 11 – 12, 2023, on Microsoft’s Redmond campus in Washington state, USA. The Call for Papers (CFP) is now open through August 18, 2023. The BlueHat community is a unique blend of security researchers and responders from both inside and outside of Microsoft, who come together as peers to exchange ideas, experiences, and learnings in the interest of creating a safer and more secure world for all.
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