Another security expert, Nathan McNulty , confirmed that the issue is present on Windows 10 versions 21H1 and 21H2 but it does not affect Windows McNulty also confirmed that one can grab the list of exclusions from the registry tree with entries that store Group Policy settings.
This information is more sensitive as it provides exclusions for multiple computers. Although a threat actor needs local access to get the Microsoft Defender exclusions list, this is far from being a hurdle. Many attackers are already on compromised corporate networks looking for a way to move laterally as stealthily as possible. By knowing the list of Microsoft Defender exclusions, a threat actor that already compromised a Windows machine can then store and execute malware from the excluded folders without fear of being spotted.
In tests done by BleepingComputer, a malware strain executed from an excluded folder ran unhindered on the Windows system and triggered no alert from Microsoft Defender.
We used a sample of Conti ransomware and when it executed from a normal location Microsoft Defender kicked in and blocked the malware.
After placing Conti malware in an excluded folder and running it from there, Microsoft Defender did not show any warning and did not take any action, allowing the ransomware to encrypt the machine. This Microsoft Defender weakness is not new and has been highlighted publicly in the past by Paul Bolton:. A senior security consultant says that they noticed the issue about eight years ago and recognized the advantage it provided to a malware developer.
Telit already had a well-defined vulnerability management program in place, but said they were missing several critical capabilities, including visibility, prioritization, and remediation. Our design partners play a key role throughout the entire process, from planning and building to operationalizing and maturing the product so we can deliver the best experience. Many of our customers have existing vulnerability management programs, so we knew that to have them switch to Microsoft we would need a disruptive approach to vulnerability management.
From private preview to general availability and beyond, our key goals were to bridge the gap between Security and IT roles in threat protection, to reduce time to threat resolution while enabling real-time prioritization and risk reduction based on the evolving threat landscape and business context.
The team continues to incorporate feedback from customers and partners, adding these new capabilities on a monthly basis. Working together with Telit, we quickly understood that the current prioritization norm is not enough to properly reduce risk in an organization. Infosec Insider content is written by a trusted community of Threatpost cybersecurity subject matter experts. Each contribution has a goal of bringing a unique voice to important cybersecurity topics.
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I agree to accept information and occasional commercial offers from Threatpost partners. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. To deploy this solution, in the Microsoft Sentinel portal, select Content hub Preview under Content Management , then search for Log4j in the search bar. Select the Log4j vulnerability detection solution, and click Install.
Learn how to centrally discover and deploy Microsoft Sentinel out-of-the-box content and solutions. Microsoft Sentinel Analytics showing detected Log4j vulnerability. Note: We recommend that you check the solution for updates periodically, as new collateral may be added to this solution given the rapidly evolving situation. This can be verified on the main Content hub page. This hunting query looks for possible attempts to exploit a remote code execution vulnerability in the Log4j component of Apache.
Attackers may attempt to launch arbitrary code by passing specific commands to a server, which are then logged and executed by the Log4j component. It returns a table of suspicious command lines. This hunting query looks in Azure Web Application Firewall data to find possible exploitation attempts for CVE involving Log4j vulnerability. This hunting query helps detect post-compromise suspicious shell scripts that attackers use for downloading and executing malicious files.
This technique is often used by attackers and was recently used to exploit the vulnerability in Log4j component of Apache to evade detection and stay persistent or for more exploitation in the network. If possible, it then decodes the malicious command for further analysis. This hunting query helps detect suspicious encoded Base64 obfuscated scripts that attackers use to encode payloads for downloading and executing malicious files.
This technique is often used by attackers and was recently used to the Log4j vulnerability in order to evade detection and stay persistent in the network. This query alerts on attempts to terminate processes related to security monitoring.
Attackers often try to terminate such processes post-compromise as seen recently to exploit the CVE vulnerability. This query uses syslog data to alert on any suspicious manipulation of firewall to evade defenses. Attackers often perform such operations as seen recently to exploit the CVE vulnerability for C2 communications or exfiltration.
This query uses various log sources having user agent data to look for CVE exploitation attempt based on user agent pattern. This query uses syslog data to alert on any attack toolkits associated with massive scanning or exploitation attempts against a known vulnerability. This query uses syslog data to alert on possible artifacts associated with containers running images related to digital cryptocurrency mining.
Below screenshot shows all the scenarios which are actively mitigated by Azure Firewall Premium. Customers using Azure Firewall Standard can migrate to Premium by following these directions.
Customers new to Azure Firewall premium can learn more about Firewall Premium. For customers who have already enabled DRS 1. We will continue to monitor threat patterns and modify the above rule in response to emerging attack patterns as required. Skip to main content. An example pattern of attack would appear in a web request log with strings like the following: An attacker performs an HTTP request against a target system, which generates a log using Log4j 2 that leverages JNDI to perform a request to the attacker-controlled site.
Exploitation continues on non-Microsoft hosted Minecraft servers Minecraft customers running their own servers are encouraged to deploy the latest Minecraft server update as soon as possible to protect their users. Access brokers associated with ransomware MSTIC and the Microsoft Defender team have confirmed that multiple tracked activity groups acting as access brokers have begun using the vulnerability to gain initial access to target networks.
Mass scanning activity continues The vast majority of traffic observed by Microsoft remains mass scanners by both attackers and security researchers.
Webtoos The Webtoos malware has DDoS capabilities and persistence mechanisms that could allow an attacker to perform additional activities. A note on testing services and assumed benign activity While services such as interact. Exploitation in internet-facing systems leads to ransomware As early as January 4, attackers started exploiting the CVE vulnerability in internet-facing systems running VMware Horizon.
Discovering affected components, software, and devices via a unified Log4j dashboard Threat and vulnerability management automatically and seamlessly identifies devices affected by the Log4j vulnerabilities and the associated risk in the environment and significantly reduces time-to-mitigate. Threat and vulnerability management dedicated CVE dashboard Figure 3. Threat and vulnerability management finds exposed paths Figure 4. Threat and vulnerability management finds exposed devices based on vulnerable software and vulnerable files detected on disk Note: Scan results may take some time to reach full coverage, and the number of discovered devices may be low at first but will grow as the scan reaches more devices.
These new capabilities provide security teams with the following: View the mitigation status for each affected device. Figure 6. This feature is currently available for Windows devices only. To view the mitigation options, click on the Mitigation options button in the Log4j dashboard : You can choose to apply the mitigation to all exposed devices or select specific devices for which you would like to apply it. Figure 7. Creating mitigation actions for exposed devices.
Microsoft Defender advanced hunting Advance hunting can also surface affected software. Searching vulnerability assessment findings by CVE identifier Software inventory — With the combined integration with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft Defender for servers , organizations can search for resources by installed applications and discover resources running the vulnerable software: Figure Finding affected images To find vulnerable images across registries using the Azure portal, navigate to the Microsoft Defender for Cloud service under Azure Portal.
Finding images with the CVE vulnerability Find vulnerable running images on Azure portal [preview] To view only vulnerable images that are currently running on a Kubernetes cluster using the Azure portal, navigate to the Microsoft Defender for Cloud service under Azure Portal.
Open the Vulnerabilities in running container images should be remediated powered by Qualys recommendation and search findings for the relevant CVEs: Figure Finding running images with the CVE vulnerability Note: This recommendation requires clusters to run Microsoft Defender security profile to provide visibility on running images.
Search Azure Resource Graph data Azure Resource Graph ARG provides instant access to resource information across cloud environments with robust filtering, grouping, and sorting capabilities. Detecting and responding to exploitation attempts and other related attacker activity Microsoft Defender Microsoft Defender coordinates multiple security solutions that detect components of observed attacks taking advantage of this vulnerability, from exploitation attempts to remote code execution and post-exploitation activity.
Microsoft Defender solutions protect against related threats Customers can click Need help? Microsoft Defender Antivirus Turn on cloud-delivered protection in Microsoft Defender Antivirus to cover rapidly evolving attacker tools and techniques. B — detects post-exploitation cryptocurrency miner Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Users of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint can turn on the following attack surface reduction rule to block or audit some observed activity associated with this threat.
Block executable files from running unless they meet a prevalence, age, or trusted list criterion Due to the broad network exploitation nature of vectors through which this vulnerability can be exploited and the fact that applying mitigations holistically across large environments will take time, we encourage defenders to look for signs of post-exploitation rather than fully relying on prevention.
We are listing them here, as it is highly recommended that they are triaged and remediated immediately given their severity and the potential that they could be related to Log4j exploitation: Suspicious remote PowerShell execution Download of file associated with digital currency mining Process associated with digital currency mining Cobalt Strike command and control detected Suspicious network traffic connection to C2 Server Ongoing hands-on-keyboard attacker activity detected Cobalt Strike Some of the alerts mentioned above utilize the enhanced network inspection capabilities in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.
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