CISO Guidance

1) Is this information credible?

• Yes, the information comes from Varonis Threat Labs, a reputable cybersecurity research entity, and Microsoft has acknowledged and patched the vulnerabilities.

2) How could this be relevant to my org’s assets, vendors, or processes?

• If your organization uses Microsoft 365 or Azure services, this vulnerability could have potentially allowed unauthorized access to sensitive data.
• Vendors using Azure applications might have been similarly exposed, impacting your supply chain security.

3) What’s the actual technical risk?

• The risk involves unauthorized access through malicious Azure apps impersonating trusted Microsoft services, leading to data breaches or privilege escalation.

4) What do we need to do to defend/detect/respond?

• Restrict user consent for new applications by configuring settings in the Entra admin center to block or limit consent to verified publishers.
• Enforce least-privilege principles to ensure minimal permissions are granted to users and applications.
• Implement continuous monitoring of Azure applications for anomalies, including unexpected app creation or non-ASCII characters in app names.

5) What’s the potential business/regulatory exposure?

• Data breaches could lead to significant reputational damage and potential non-compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR or CCPA.

6) Does it reveal a bigger trend?

• This incident highlights a growing trend of sophisticated social engineering attacks leveraging trusted platforms and services to bypass security measures.

7) What actions or communications are needed now?

• Communicate with IT and security teams to ensure awareness of the patched vulnerabilities and the importance of updated security configurations.
• Inform employees about the risks of malicious consent requests and train them to recognize phishing attempts.
• Review and update security policies related to third-party applications and cloud service usage.