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Peach Sandstorm 2023 tradecraft and attack flow diagram.

Peach Sandstorm password spray campaigns enable intelligence collection at high-value targets

Since February 2023, Microsoft has observed password spray activity against thousands of organizations carried out  by an actor we track as Peach Sandstorm (HOLMIUM). Peach Sandstorm is an Iranian nation-state threat actor who has recently pursued organizations in the satellite, ... continue reading
Diagram showing the Storm-0324 attack chain from the delivery of phishing email to the deployment of the JSSLoader DLL, after which access is handed off to Sangria Tempest

Malware distributor Storm-0324 facilitates ransomware access

The threat actor that Microsoft tracks as Storm-0324 is a financially motivated group known to gain initial access using email-based initial infection vectors and then hand off access to compromised networks to other threat actors. These handoffs frequently lead to ... continue reading
Storm-0978 attacks reveal financial and espionage motives

Storm-0978 attacks reveal financial and espionage motives

Microsoft has identified a phishing campaign conducted by the threat actor tracked as Storm-0978 targeting defense and government entities in Europe and North America. The campaign involved the abuse of CVE-2023-36884, which included a remote code execution vulnerability exploited before ... continue reading
Screenshots of Outlook on Windows showing how to set a custom sound that plays when a reminder is triggered

Guidance for investigating attacks using CVE-2023-23397

This guide provides steps organizations can take to assess whether users have been targeted or compromised by threat actors exploiting CVE-2023-23397. A successful exploit of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized access to an organization’s environment by triggering a Net-NTLMv2 ... continue reading
Azure Policies for Automating Azure Governance - Choosing Policies

Azure Policies for Automating Azure Governance – Choosing Policies

Time and time again, many people get that go ahead for cloud but don't want to unleash everyone into the environment.  This is with good understanding.  Without policies and governance in place, cloud spend can go unmonitored or resources deployed ... continue reading
diagram

DEV-0139 launches targeted attacks against the cryptocurrency industry

Over the past several years, the cryptocurrency market has considerably expanded, gaining the interest of investors and threat actors. Cryptocurrency itself has been used by cybercriminals for their operations, notably for ransom payment in ransomware attacks, but we have also ... continue reading
Screenshot of a BATLOADER landing site that poses as a TeamViewer website hosting a fake installer.

DEV-0569 finds new ways to deliver Royal ransomware, various payloads

Recent activity from the threat actor that Microsoft tracks as DEV-0569, known to distribute various payloads, has led to the deployment of the Royal ransomware, which first emerged in September 2022 and is being distributed by multiple threat actors. Observed ... continue reading
This diagram shows the linear progression of earlier Raspberry Robin infections.

Raspberry Robin worm part of larger ecosystem facilitating pre-ransomware activity

Microsoft has discovered recent activity indicating that the Raspberry Robin worm is part of a complex and interconnected malware ecosystem, with links to other malware families and alternate infection methods beyond its original USB drive spread. These infections lead to ... continue reading
Infection chain describing the usual tactics and techniques used by DEV-0270 actor group.

Profiling DEV-0270: PHOSPHORUS’ ransomware operations

Microsoft threat intelligence teams have been tracking multiple ransomware campaigns and have tied these attacks to DEV-0270, also known as Nemesis Kitten, a sub-group of Iranian actor PHOSPHORUS. Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that DEV-0270 conducts malicious network operations, including ... continue reading
Screenshot of a Sliver implant configuration data extracted from the process memory of a Sliver backdoor.

Looking for the ‘Sliver’ lining: Hunting for emerging command-and-control frameworks

Microsoft has observed the Sliver command-and-control (C2) framework now being adopted and integrated in intrusion campaigns by nation-state threat actors, cybercrime groups directly supporting ransomware and extortion, and other threat actors to evade detection. We’ve seen these actors use Sliver ... continue reading