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Follina Exploited by State-Sponsored Hackers
A government-aligned attacker tried using a Microsoft vulnerability to attack U.S. and E.U. government targets.
A government-aligned attacker tried using a Microsoft vulnerability to attack U.S. and E.U. government targets.
Researchers have added state-sponsored hackers to the list of adversaries attempting to exploit Microsoft’s now-patched Follina vulnerability. According to researchers at Proofpoint, state-sponsored hackers have attempted to abuse the Follina vulnerability in Microsoft Office, aiming an email-based exploit at U.S. and E.U. government targets via phishing campaigns.
Proofpoint researchers spotted the attacks and believe the adversaries have ties to a government, which it did not identify. Attacks consist of campaigns targeting victims U.S. and E.U. government workers. Malicious emails contain fake recruitment pitches promising a 20 percent boost in salaries and entice recipients to download an accompanying attachment.
The text states, “You’ll be getting a [20%]sic increase in your salary.” The message prompts recipients to open an attached document “before this weekend” to learn more.
In a Twitter-based statement, Sherrod DeGrippo, vice president of threat research at Proofpoint, said about 10 Proofpoint customers had received over 1,000 such messages.
The malicious attachment targets the remote code execution bug CVE-2022-30190, dubbed Follina.
Discovered last month, the flaw exploits the Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic Tool. As Microsoft explained in a blog post, the bug “exists when MSDT is called using the URL protocol from a calling application such as Word. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can run arbitrary code with the privileges of the calling application.”
State-sponsored abuse of the flaw is just the latest in a string of Follina-related attacks.
If successfully exploited, attackers can use the Follina flaw to install programs, view, change or delete data, or create new accounts in the context allowed by the user’s rights, the company said.
“A remote code execution vulnerability exists when MSDT is called using the URL protocol from a calling application such as Word,” Microsoft explained in its guidance on the Microsoft Security Response Center. “An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can run arbitrary code with the privileges of the calling application.”
Microsoft’s workaround comes some six weeks after the vulnerability was apparently first identified. Researchers from Shadow Chaser Group noticed it on April 12 and patched by Microsoft in May.
Proofpoint says the malicious file used in the recruitment phishing campaigns, if downloaded, executes a script that can ultimately check for virtualized environment to abuse and “steals information from local browsers, mail clients and file services, conducts machine recon and then zips it for exfil.”
Proofpoint explained in a tweet, “The extensive reconnaissance conducted by [a] second Powershell script demonstrated an actor interested in a large variety of software on a target’s computer.” It is that behavior that raised concerns that the campaign had ties to a “state aligned nexus,” researchers noted.
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A suspected state-aligned threat actor has been attributed to a new set of attacks exploiting the Microsoft Office "Follina" vulnerability to target government entities in Europe and the U.S. Enterprise security firm Proofpoint said it blocked attempts at exploiting the remote code execution flaw, which is being tracked CVE-2022-30190 (CVSS score: 7.8). No less than 1,000 phishing messages
Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability.
By Waqas The Follina vulnerability was originally discovered after a malicious Microsoft Word document was uploaded on VirusTotal from a… This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Unofficial Micropatch for Follina Released as Chinese Hackers Exploit the 0-day
A recently discovered zero-day vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) made headlines over the past few days. CVE-2022-30190, also known under the name "Follina," exists when MSDT is called using the URL protocol from an application, such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft... [[ This is only the beginning! Please visit the blog for the complete entry ]]
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"Follina" vulnerability in Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) affects all currently supported Windows versions and can be triggered via specially crafted Office documents.
Microsoft on Monday published guidance for a newly discovered zero-day security flaw in its Office productivity suite that could be exploited to achieve code execution on affected systems. The weakness, now assigned the identifier CVE-2022-30190, is rated 7.8 out of 10 for severity on the CVSS vulnerability scoring system. Microsoft Office versions Office 2013, Office 2016, Office 2019, and
On Monday May 30, 2022, Microsoft issued CVE-2022-30190 regarding the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) in Windows vulnerability. A remote code execution vulnerability exists when MSDT is called using the URL protocol from a calling application such as Word. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can run arbitrary code with the privileges of the … Guidance for CVE-2022-30190 Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool Vulnerability Read More »