Microsoft’s Azure AD, the cloud-based flavor of the on-premises service is an interesting construct. On the surface you think that it has some decent protections enabled by default. The sad truth of the matter is that this is not the case and many options for security are very lacking until you hit much higher security levels. If you add to this equation the likelihood of vulnerabilities and other flaws that can allow an attacker to bypass the security options that are already there it is a bit of a mess. This wonderful thought is what brings us to today’s flaw. According to security researchers, there is a flaw in how Microsoft Azure AD processes its implementation of OAuth (Open Authentication).

There is nothing like hearing about a new information stealer on a Monday. In this case the malware in question goes by the name of Mystic Stealer and was first pushed onto the world in April of 2023. It boasts some pretty impressive features like being able to steal data from 40 different web browsers and over 70 browser extensions. This list of features is on top of targeting crypto wallets, Steam accounts, and Telegram Accounts.

As I have often said, the idea that an operating system, or brand of computer is somehow immune to attack or malware is just a false one. We have seen time and time again where attackers are all too capable of compromising what was once considered “secure”. Now security researchers have found evidence of a sophisticated cross platform toolkit which could indicate an increased focus on macOS.

According to a statement that Microsoft released on Friday, several outrages in their Azure environment were caused by a large-scale Distributed Denial of Service attack. The attack began in early June 2023 when “surges in traffic” began causing availability impacts. Microsoft began an investigation into the incident and are now tracking a potentially new threat group (Storm-1359). The new group is using a somewhat different attack vector although most of the moving parts behind the attack are common.

There is a new threat in town from the ChamelGang. This new threat is a Linux backdoor that just been identified and shows that the threat group is expanding their capabilities. Identified by Stairwell and dubber ChamelDoH (for DNS over HTTPS), this new malware is written in C++, which is not all that unusual even if the method of communication is not completely normal. ChamelGang was first identified in 2021 and was associated with attacks on energy, fuel, and aviation industries in multiple countries including the US, Russia, Nepal, Japan, Taiwan, and India.

A 20-year-old Russian National Magomedovich Astamirov was arrested in Arizona and had his initial appearance in court yesterday. The arrest and charges come after a lengthy investigation into the Ransomware as a Service Group, LockBit. This is the second arrest in six months related to the group’s activities with a third warrant/indictment issued for another individual, Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev, who is still at large. According to the DOJ press release Astamirov is suspected of conspiring with other LockBit members to attack multiple organizations in the US and around the globe. Astamirov is believed to have managed various IP and Email addresses used for ransomware deployment and communication with the victims of attacks.

Here we are with another story about MOVEit and just how bad things have gotten for the Managed File Transfer application and their parent company Progress Software. The group behind the attack, Cl0p ransomware gang, has started to extort the companies that they stole data from. They have listed the names of companies on their data leak site, in the same manner they would for ransomware victims after failing to pay. We know that someone (Cl0p has taken credit) was able to finally exploit a zero-day in the software after about a year of tinkering with the flaw and months of access.

On Wednesday Microsoft’s threat group unveiled information about a new Russian Threat Group with ties to the GRU. As part of the announcement, they also noted that the group has a low success rate and poor operational security. The group, which Microsoft is now tracking under the name Cadet Blizzard seems to focus on service disruption, destructive campaigns and information gathering. Microsoft noted that they appear to be a combination of technically skilled, but lacking direction and sophistication.

If there is one thing you can say about modern threat groups, it is that they are clever. The new tactics and techniques they identify, and implement are impressive. A recent technique identified is the use of abandoned S3 buckets. The attackers search for and locate S3 buckets that are no longer in use and claim them as their own. If the bucket happens to be part of an existing or previous deployment workflow, so much the better. Checkmarx recently identified a supply chain attack that involved this type of scenario. The attackers took claimed an abandoned S3 bucket for an NPM package called bignum.

The last couple of months have been rather busy with the identification of critical vulnerabilities. Multiple Zero-Days were found in different pieces of software including Remote Code Execution, data modification and theft, and complete compromise of other devices that require replacement rather than patching. So, with that it is not surprising that another critical flaw has been identified (and patched) in another major vendor’s devices. Fortinet has announced the release of patches for a vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-27997.