Microsoft discovered a vulnerability pattern in multiple popular Android applications that could enable a malicious application to overwrite files in the vulnerable application’s internal data storage directory, which could lead to arbitrary code execution and token theft, among other impacts. We have shared our findings with Google’s Android Application Security Research team, as well as the developers of apps found vulnerable to this issue. We anticipate that the vulnerability pattern could be found in other applications. We’re sharing this research more broadly so developers and publishers can check their apps for similar issues, fix as appropriate, and prevent them from being introduced into new apps or releases.
In January 2024, Microsoft discovered they'd been the victim of a hack orchestrated by Russian-state hackers Midnight Blizzard (sometimes known as Nobelium). The concerning detail about this case is how easy it was to breach the software giant. It wasn't a highly technical hack that exploited a zero-day vulnerability – the hackers used a simple password spray attack to take control of an old, inactive account. This serves as a stark reminder of the importance of password security and why organizations need to protect every user account.
Update on Microsoft Actions Following Attack by Nation State Actor Midnight Blizzard
While most end users are well-acquainted with the dangers of traditional phishing attacks, such as those delivered via email or other media, a large proportion are likely unaware that Microsoft Teams chats could be a phishing vector. Most Teams activity is intra-organizational, but Microsoft enables External Access by default, which allows members of one organization to add users outside the organization to their Teams chats. Perhaps predictably, this feature has provided malicious actors a new avenue by which to exploit untrained or unaware users.
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. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence investigation identified the threat actor as Midnight Blizzard, the Russian state-sponsored actor also known as NOBELIUM.
Microsoft Actions Following Attack by Nation State Actor Midnight Blizzard