Most likely, the process will begin with an email. Up to 50,000 Office 365 users are being targeted by a phishing campaign that purports to notify them of a "missed chat" from Microsoft Teams. Office for Mere Mortals. For example, at every stage in the attack chain above, the attackers abused existing tools (LOLBins) and scripts to accomplish various tasks. As mentioned, common application pools MSExchangeOWAAppPool or MSExchangeECPAppPool accessing the shell should be considered suspicious. In other cases, certutil.exe or powershell.exe were used. Microsoft will soon notify Office 365 of suspected nation-state hacking activity detected within their tenants according to a new listing on the company's Microsoft 365 roadmap. Read more. Behavior-based blocking and containment stops advanced attacks in their tracks by detecting and halting malicious processes and behaviors. If you can see a device attached to your account that you don’t own, you can bet there’s someone else using your account. This is an attacker’s dream: directly landing on a server and, if the server has misconfigured access levels, gain system privileges. In fact, the security company Avanan discovered the latest email campaign that targets Office 365 users. Use a strong password. This way, if they receive a strange email from you, they’ll know to delete it. In many cases, after attackers gain access to an Exchange server, what follows is the deployment of web shell into one of the many web accessible paths on the server. If you are worried that these security controls will affect performance or disrupt operations, engage with IT pros to help determine the true impact of these settings. The manner in which Microsoft Office 365 manages “federated identities” through Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) allows online hackers to infiltrate accounts, data, e-mail messages and files within the software’s cloud. 29 July 2019. It’s critical to protect Exchange servers with antivirus software and other security solutions like firewall protection and MFA. Check for unexpected email messages from your address or from people in your organisation. At this time it is known to affect on prem servers only, not office 365, or Microsoft patched them servers immediately. Attackers add accounts to these groups to gain foothold on a server. With attacker-controlled accounts now part of Domain Admins group, the attackers performed a technique called DCSYNC attack, which abuses the Active Directory replication capability to request account information, such as the NTLM hashes of all the users’ passwords in the organization. Figure 6. Common services, for example Outlook on the web  (formerly known as Outlook Web App or OWA) or Exchange admin center (EAC; formerly known as the  Exchange Control Panel or ECP), executing net.exe, cmd.exe, and other known living-off-the-land binaries (LOLBins) like mshta.exe is very suspicious and should be further investigated. The attackers then added the newly created account to high-privilege groups like Administrators, Remote Desktop Users, and Enterprise Admins, practically making the attackers a domain admin with unrestricted access to any users or group in the organization. Practice the principle of least-privilege and maintain credential hygiene. The four vulnerabilities Microsoft disclosed do not affect Exchange Online, Microsoft’s cloud-based email and calendar service that’s included in commercial Office 365 and Microsoft 365 subscription bundles. Not only will this versatile software suite save you time and boost productivity, but it also makes collaboration and file sharing easier than ever. Removed the mailbox export request to avoid raising suspicion. This gave the attackers the ability to access the server without the need to deploy any remote access tools. Behavior-based blocking and containment capabilities in Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection stop many of the malicious activities we described in this blog. Click here to subscribe to our future blog posts, How to clean Windows 10 of all its annoyances. First, do these steps for your Microsoft 365 subscription, and then do these steps for your other accounts. The attackers also used other techniques such as creating service or schedule task on remote systems. It is important to note that the exploits only affect on-premise legacy Exchange servers from 2013, 2016, and 2019 and does not impact cloud-based Exchange Online or Microsoft 365 products. While file creation events alone cannot be treated as suspicious, correlating such events with the responsible process results in more reliable signals. The second scenario is where attackers exploit a remote code execution vulnerability affecting the underlying Internet Information Service (IIS) component of a target Exchange server. Our team are Office 365 experts and can help you or your organisation make the most of this powerful productivity suite. In one case, the attackers created an .ashx version of a popular, publicly available .aspx web shell, which exposes minimum functionality: Figure 3. This technique is extremely stealthy because it can be performed without running a single command on the actual domain controller. Office 365 lives inside a high-capacity, dedicated Microsoft network that is steadily monitored not just by automation, but by real people. Users who use the Microsoft Exchange in-office software are affected by the hack, but the users who use Microsoft 365 are less likely to be affected by it and can be assured of complete security. Let’s get started. Cloud-based services Exchange Online and Office 365 are not affected. Figure 2. Some people with a free Microsoft accounts like Outlook.com, Msn.com Hotmail.com etc. Classified as CVE-2020-0688; the vulnerability is exploited by state-backed APT (advanced persistent threat) hacking groups. Volexity, a US-based cybersecurity firm has revealed that some state-sponsored hackers are trying to exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange email servers, which Microsoft already patched in February. The binary used the open-source MemoryModule library to load the binary using reflective DLL injection. A cyberattack on Microsoft Corp.’s Exchange email software is believed to have infected tens of thousands of businesses, government offices and … Securing Exchange servers is one of the most important things defenders can do to limit organizational exposure to attacks. In the attacks observed, threat actors used this vulnerability to access on-premises Exchange servers, which enabled access to email accounts, and install additional malware to facilitate long-term access to victim environments. Catching attacks in the exploratory phase, the period in which attackers spend several days exploring the environment after gaining access, is key. For example, MTP can be connected to Azure Sentinel to enable web shell threat hunting. This is exacerbated by the fact that Exchange servers have traditionally lacked antivirus solutions, network protection, the latest security updates, and proper security configuration, often intentionally, due to the misguided notion that these protections interfere with normal Exchange functions. The attackers tried to blend the web shell script file with other .aspx files present on the system by using common file names. Deploy the latest security updates, especially for server components like Exchange, as soon as they become available. Microsoft says that a ‘limited’ number were affected, and they’ve emailed all the customers who might have been Behavior-based detections of attacker activity on Exchange servers. Security teams and IT pros should collaborate on applying mitigations and appropriate settings. Adversaries like using web shells, which are relatively small pieces of malicious code written in common programming languages, because these can be easily modified to evade traditional file-based protections. Here are some examples of the China Chopper codes that were dropped in these attacks: We also observed the attackers switching web shells or introducing two or more for various purposes. The first and more common scenario is attackers launching social engineering or drive-by download attacks targeting endpoints, where they steal credentials and move laterally to other endpoints in a progressive dump-escalate-move method until they gain access to an Exchange server. ARCHIVED; Use threat and vulnerability management to audit these servers regularly for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and suspicious activity. Exchange Online is not affected. Microsoft has released out-of-band security updates to address four vulnerabilities in Exchange Server: CVE-2021-26855 allows an unauthenticated attacker to send arbitrary HTTP requests and authenticate … Figure 1. The thing is, as with any kind of online tool, there is a risk of exploitation by a malicious hacker. Keeping these servers safe from these advanced attacks is of utmost importance. In the attacks observed, threat actors used this vulnerability to access on-premises Exchange servers, which enabled access to email accounts, and install additional malware to facilitate long-term access to victim environments. In our investigation, most of these attacks used the China Chopper web shell. Attackers also used the EternalBlue exploit and nbtstat scanner to identify vulnerable machines on the network. I am not very technically minded (albeit the person who provides my office 365 has changed the password. In this blog, we’ll share our investigation of the Exchange attacks in early April, covering multiple campaigns occurring at the same time. Microsoft Defender Security Research Team, Featured image for HAFNIUM targeting Exchange Servers with 0-day exploits, HAFNIUM targeting Exchange Servers with 0-day exploits, Featured image for Ghost in the shell: Investigating web shell attacks, Ghost in the shell: Investigating web shell attacks, Featured image for Web shell attacks continue to rise, Decentralized identity, blockchain and privacy, SSO solution: Secure app access with single sign-on, strong randomized, just-in-time local administrator passwords, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, Exfiltration Over Command and Control Channel, Microsoft security intelligence blog posts. Attackers know this, and they leverage this knowledge to gain a stable foothold on a target organization. Most likely, the process will begin with an email. Attackers exported mailboxes through these four steps: As part of lateral movement, the attackers attempted to disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus. Now, the hackers have your login details and can infiltrate your account. Web shell attacks allow adversaries to run commands and steal data from an Internet-facing server or use the server as launch pad for further attacks against the affected organization. My office 365 has been hacked and having lots of contacts all have been in touch to ask should they open up a file which looks suspicious. Enforce strong randomized, just-in-time local administrator passwords and Enable MFA. Any threat or vulnerability impacting Exchange servers should be treated with the highest priority because these servers contain critical business data, as well as highly privileged accounts that attackers attempt to compromise to gain admin rights to the server and, consequently, complete control of the network. The attackers tried to disable automatic updates to avoid any detection by new intelligence updates. Hackers are now using a new trick to bypass Microsoft Office 365’s security features. Microsoft announced this week that hackers exploited a bug in their email server software to target U.S. organizations. The next step for attackers was to create a network architecture using port forwarding tools like plink.exe, a command line connection tool like ssh. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/09/microsoft-exchange-hack-explained.html Anatomy of an Exchange server attack. Finally, dumped data was compressed using the utility tool rar.exe. Exchange Server is primarily used by business customers, and we have no evidence that Hafnium’s activities targeted individual consumers or that these exploits impact other Microsoft products. Phishing is the act of tricking users into entering their username or email address and password into a website disguised as something legitimate. No. These cmdlets allowed the attackers to perform the following: In our investigations, attackers were primarily interested in received emails. The memory dump was loaded inside the same binary and parsed to extract passwords, another example of reflective DLL injection where the Mimikatz binary was present only in memory. In these attacks, the attackers used several known methods to move laterally: The Exchange Management Shell is the PowerShell interface for administrators to manage the Exchange server. Put them to good use as you continue pursuing your professional goals. Notably, the attacks used multiple fileless techniques, adding another layer of complexity to detecting and resolving these threats, and demonstrating how behavior-based detections are key to protecting organizations. Microsoft announced in December that Exchange mailbox auditing for Office 365 commercial users would be enabled by default due to customer demand. In many cases, hijacked servers used the ‘echo’ command to write the web shell. Attackers used these cmdlets to perform the following: Figure 4. If compromised, Exchange servers provide a unique environment that could allow attackers to perform various tasks using the same built-in tools or scripts that admins use for maintenance. Exchange servers contain the most sensitive users and groups in an organization. To understand suspicious invocation of the Exchange Management Shell, we need to go one step back in the process chain and analyze the responsible process. Identify and remediate vulnerabilities or misconfigurations in Exchange servers. The email will prompt you to enter your information by clicking a link. Using these tools allowed attackers to bypass network restrictions and remotely access machines through Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Any other service that used this Exchange account as its alternative email account may have been compromised. Turn on cloud-delivered protection and automatic sample submission to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to quickly identify and stop new and unknown threats. Phishing is the act of tricking users into entering their username or email address and password into a website disguised as something legitimate. Check for attached devices. Make sure to help others understand this. Through built-in intelligence and automation, Microsoft Threat Protection coordinates protection, detection, and response across endpoints, identity, data, and apps. In addition, Microsoft Defender ATP’s endpoint detection and response (EDR) sensors provide visibility into malicious behaviors associated with Exchange server compromise. Even though we’ve worked quickly to deploy an update for the Hafnium exploits, we know that many nation-state actors and criminal groups will move quickly to take advantage of any unpatched … Here are some simple tips to follow to ensure your Office 365 account doesn’t get hacked again: If you’d like help setting up or protecting your Microsoft Office 365 account, get in contact. Attackers used different ways to load and run PowerShell cmdlets through the Exchange Management Shell. Beyond resolving these alerts in the shortest possible time, organizations should focus on investigating the end-to-end attack chain and trace the vulnerability, misconfiguration, or other weakness in the infrastructure that allowed the attack to occur. As such, it exposes many critical Exchange PowerShell cmdlets to allow admins to perform various maintenance tasks, such as assigning roles and permissions, and migration, including importing and exporting mailboxes. The distinctive patterns of Exchange server compromise aid in detecting malicious behaviors and inform security operations teams to quickly respond to the initial stages of compromise. A global wave of cyberattacks and data breaches began in January 2021 after four zero-day exploits were discovered in on-premises Microsoft Exchange Servers, giving attackers full access to user emails and passwords on affected servers, administrator privileges on the server, and access to connected devices on the same network. Microsoft Exchange Server versions of 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 were confirmed to be susceptible, although vulnerable editions are yet to be fully determined. Any path accessible over the internet is a potential target for web shell deployment, but in these attacks, the most common client access paths were: The ClientAccess and FrontEnd directories provide various client access services such as Outlook on the web, EAC, and AutoDiscover, to name a few. The group aimed to gain information from defence contractors and schools among other entities in the US, a senior Microsoft official wrote in a blog. This role is required to be added before attempting mailbox export. In addition, MTP’s visibility into malicious artifacts and behavior empowers security operations teams to proactively hunt for threats on Exchange servers. Place access control list (ACL) restrictions on ECP and other virtual directories in IIS. Apply similar restrictions to other application pools. Microsoft has stated these vulnerabilities can be used as part of an attack chain that allows attackers to gain access to Exchange and, ultimately, an organisation's email. https://www.microsoft.com/.../03/02/hafnium-targeting-exchange-servers Most hackers target 365 users through a malevolent practice knowing as phishing. Most CXO non-technical managers who hear “only affects Exchange Servers on-prem and not Office 365” will breathe a sigh of relief incorrectly. Something you should know about Office 365 performance. Microsoft 365 Version of Exchange Not Impacted. (Updated April 14, 2021): Microsoft's April 2021 Security Update newly discloses and mitigates significant vulnerabilities affecting on-premises Exchange Server 2013, 2016, and 2019. Join discussions at the Microsoft Threat Protection and Microsoft Defender ATP tech communities. Cloud Security service offering company ‘Avanan’ has discovered that business email users of Microsoft Office 365 are vulnerable to a phishing cyber attack. In our investigation, the attackers first dumped user hashes by saving the Security Account Manager (SAM) database from the registry. Microsoft Defender ATP is a component of the broader Microsoft Threat Protection (MTP), which provides comprehensive visibility into advanced attacks by combining the capabilities of Office 365 ATP, Azure ATP, Microsoft Cloud App Security, and Microsoft Defender ATP. Granted ‘Mailbox Import Export’ role to the attacker-controlled account. There are two primary ways in which Exchange servers are compromised. Do I need an Apple MacBook battery replacement? Office 365 is an excellent tool to use in your organisation – or at home. The attacks started in early January, according to security company Volexity and Microsoft had identified some of the issues. Figure 7. Multifactor authentication is the best way to protect yourself from … It occurs when an attacker, masquerading as a trusted entity, dupes a victim into opening an email that contains a URL to share a file via sharepoint. How a Microsoft Office 365 hack might occur Most hackers target 365 users through a malevolent practice knowing as phishing. Time to Ditch Microsoft Exchange. Through the incidents view, MTP provides a consolidated picture of related attack evidence that shows the complete attack story, empowering SecOps teams to thoroughly investigate attacks. If you use remote IT support and have a quality Microsoft Office 365 consultant onboard, they will able to do this for you. Because it looks like the email was sent by a legitimate organisation – such a Microsoft itself – you follow the link and supply your username and password. The security update that fixes this vulnerability has been available for several months, but, notably, to this day, attackers find vulnerable servers to target. If you use Microsoft Office 365 products at work or at home, you should be aware of the software’s extensive vulnerability. The company discovered the vulnerability using a Punycode and found that more than half of the business email users of the said premium office software have become victims of the phishing malware. These attacks also tend to be advanced threats with highly evasive, fileless techniques. Hear more from the author of this blog on episode #3 of Security Unlocked. 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