Microsoft Breach: Midnight Blizzard Strikes! πŸ•΅οΈβ€β™‚οΈ

Mar 11 2024

Gone Phishing Banner

Welcome to Gone Phishing, your daily cybersecurity newsletter that will never πŸ‘» you when it comes to cyber πŸ›‘οΈ

Today’s hottest cybersecurity news stories:

  • πŸ₯Ά Midnight Blizzard is back! Russian hackers steal Microsoft source code πŸ‘¨β€πŸ’»

  • πŸ“± Meta explains WhatsApp, Messenger interoperability in accordance with EU 🌍

  • ✍️ The writings on the wall re font flaws says Australian graphics outfit Canva 🦘

Snow wonder Microsoft’s running scared πŸ‘€β˜ƒοΈπŸ˜¬

 

giphy.com

 

🚨 Microsoft Breach: Midnight Blizzard Strikes! πŸ•΅οΈβ€β™‚οΈ

πŸ”“ Microsoft discloses breach by Kremlin-backed threat actor Midnight Blizzard (APT29), accessing source code repositories and internal systems.

πŸ“§ Evidence suggests unauthorized access via exfiltrated corporate email systems, with increased password spray attacks observed.

πŸ›‘οΈ While customer-facing systems remain uncompromised, Microsoft intensifies security measures and reaches out to impacted customers.

🌐 The scale and nature of accessed secrets and source code remain undisclosed as investigations continue.

πŸ” Midnight Blizzard’s sophisticated tactics underscore the evolving global threat landscape, highlighting the need for heightened cybersecurity vigilance.

TL;DR?

πŸ”“ Microsoft breached by Midnight Blizzard, accessing source code and internal systems.

πŸ“§ Unauthorized access linked to exfiltrated corporate email systems.

πŸ›‘οΈ Enhanced security measures implemented, investigations ongoing.

🌐 Scope of accessed data and secrets undisclosed.

πŸ” Midnight Blizzard’s tactics emphasize the importance of robust cybersecurity defenses.

 

Signup for Free

 

Learn AI in 5 minutes a day. We’ll teach you how to save time and earn more with AI. Join 400,000+ free daily readers for trending tools, productivity boosting prompts, the latest news, and more.

WhatsApp with Messenger? Does it Meta to EU? πŸ™ƒ

🚨 Meta’s Interoperability Plan Unveiled Amid DMA Enforcement πŸ“±

πŸ”— Meta announces plans for WhatsApp and Messenger interoperability with third-party messaging services as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) takes effect in the EU.

🌐 DMA obliges gatekeeper companies, including Meta, to enable interoperability and curb anti-competitive practices.

πŸ”’ Third-party providers expected to adopt Signal Protocol for end-to-end encryption (E2EE), with encrypted communications packaged in XML stanzas.

πŸ”Œ Meta proposes a “plug-and-play” model for third-party connection to its infrastructure, enabling interoperability.

πŸ€– WhatsApp to use Meta’s protocol (XMPP) for third-party client connection, facilitating authentication and push notifications.

πŸ›‘οΈ Cybersecurity concerns arise over potential data exposure with the use of proxies, impacting user safety and privacy.

TL;DR?

πŸ”— Meta responds to DMA requirements, enabling WhatsApp and Messenger interoperability.

πŸ”’ Third-party providers to adopt Signal Protocol for encryption.

πŸ”Œ “Plug-and-play” model proposed for seamless third-party integration.

πŸ€– WhatsApp to utilize Meta’s protocol for client-server communication.

πŸ›‘οΈ Data privacy concerns raised over proxy usage in the technical architecture.

🎣 Catch of the Day!! 🌊🐟🦞

πŸƒΒ The Motley Fool: β€œFool me once, shame on β€” shame on you. Fool me β€” you can’t get fooled again.” Good ol’ George Dubya πŸ˜‚ Let us tell who’s not fooling around though; that’s the CrΓΌe πŸ‘€ at Motley Fool. You’d be a fool (alright, enough already! πŸ™ˆ) not to check out their Share Tips from time to time so your savings can one day emerge from their cocoon as a beautiful butterfly! πŸ› Kidding aside, if you check out their website they’ve actually got a ton of great content with a wide variety of different investment ideas to suit most budgets πŸ€‘Β (LINK)


🚡 Wander: Find your happy place. Cue Happy Gilmore flashback πŸŒοΈβ›³πŸŒˆπŸ•ŠοΈ Mmmm Happy Place… πŸ˜‡ So, we’ve noticed a lot of you guys are interested in travel. As are we! We stumbled upon this cool company that offers a range of breath-taking spots around the United States and, honestly, the website alone is worth a gander. When all you see about the Land of the free and the home of the brave is news of rioting, looting and school shootings, it’s easy to forget how beautiful some parts of it are. The awe-inspiring locations along with the innovative architecture of the hotels sets Wander apart from your run of the mill American getaway 🏞️😍 (LINK)


🌊 Digital Ocean: If you build it they will come. Nope, we’re not talking about a baseball field for ghosts βšΎπŸ‘»πŸΏ (Great movie, to be fair πŸ™ˆ). This is the Digital Ocean who’ve got a really cool platform for building and hosting pretty much anything you can think of. If you check out their website you’ll find yourself catching the buzz even if you can’t code (guilty πŸ˜‘). But if you can and you’re looking for somewhere to test things out or launch something new or simply enhance what you’ve got, we’d recommend checking out their services fo’ sho πŸ˜‰ And how can you not love their slogan: Dream it. Build it. Grow it. Right on, brother! 🌿 (LINK)

Font security ‘still a Helvetica of a problem’ πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

🚨 Canva’s Font Security Exploration Reveals Three Critical Vulnerabilities πŸ”

πŸ–ŒοΈ Canva, the popular online graphic design platform, embarked on a security exploration focusing on fonts, unearthing three significant vulnerabilities that pose potential risks to users’ security.

πŸ”’ CVE-2023-45139: This high-severity vulnerability resides in FontTools, a Python library utilized for manipulating fonts. It allows the processing of untrusted XML files during font subset operations, potentially leading to the exposure of sensitive password files.

πŸ”’ CVE-2024-25081 & CVE-2024-25082: Rated at 4.2/10, these vulnerabilities are linked to font naming conventions and compression techniques. They could enable attackers to execute shell commands and inject malicious code into tools like FontForge, posing a serious security threat.

πŸ›‘οΈ Canva underscores the necessity of treating fonts as untrusted inputs and advocates for further research into font security. The company’s findings highlight the critical need for enhanced security measures within font processing tools and libraries to mitigate potential risks and safeguard user data.

πŸ’‘ This in-depth investigation underscores the often-overlooked security challenges associated with font manipulation and emphasizes the importance of robust security practices in font-related software development.

That’s all for today, folks! ✌️

πŸ—žοΈ Extra, Extra! Read all about it!

Every few weeks, we carefully select three hot newsletters to show you. Reputation is everything, so any links we share come from personal recommendation or carefully researched businesses at the time of posting. Enjoy!

  • πŸ›‘οΈ Tl;dr sec: Join 30,000+ security professionals getting the best tools, blog posts, talks, and resources right in their inbox for free every Thursday πŸ“…

  • πŸ’΅Β Crypto Pragmatist: Crypto made simple. Actionable alpha in 5 minutes, 3x a week. Join 47,000+ investors and insiders, for πŸ†“

  • πŸ“ˆΒ Bitcoin Breakdown: The best in Bitcoin, carefully curated by an alien from the future πŸ‘Ύ

Let us know what you think!

So long and thanks for reading all the phish!

Recent articles