Microsoft Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (MIC0092900111925)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Microsoft breach identified under incident ID MIC0092900111925.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Microsoft's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/github, the number of followers: 26897413, the industry type: Software Development and the number of employees: 220893 employees

After the initial compromise, the video explains how Rankiteo's incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score. The incident score before the incident was 689 and after the incident was 689 with a difference of 0 which is could be a good indicator of the severity and impact of the incident.

In the next step of the video, we will analyze in more details the incident and the impact it had on Microsoft and their customers.

Microsoft Azure recently reported "Record-Breaking 15.72 Tbps DDoS Attack on Microsoft Azure Mitigated", a noteworthy cybersecurity incident.

Microsoft neutralized a record-breaking distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack targeting its Azure service in late October 2023.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Azure endpoint (Australia).

In response, teams activated the incident response plan, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like Azure DDoS Protection infrastructure filtering and Traffic redirection, and began remediation that includes Botnet IP blocking and Enhanced monitoring for Aisuru/TurboMirai activity, and stakeholders are being briefed through Public blog post by Microsoft and Media statements.

The case underscores how Completed (mitigation successful), teams are taking away lessons such as DDoS attacks are scaling with internet infrastructure upgrades (e.g., fiber-to-home, IoT proliferation), Botnets like Aisuru/TurboMirai pose persistent threats by exploiting unsecured IoT devices and Cloud-native DDoS protection (e.g., Azure’s scrubbing services) is critical for mitigating large-scale attacks, and recommending next steps like Implement multi-layered DDoS protection (e.g., cloud scrubbing, rate limiting), Secure IoT devices with strong credentials, firmware updates, and network segmentation and Monitor for botnet activity (e.g., Aisuru/TurboMirai) in residential ISP traffic, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Microsoft advised customers to enable Azure DDoS Protection for defense-in-depth.

Finally, we try to match the incident with the MITRE ATT&CK framework to see if there is any correlation between the incident and the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a knowledge base of techniques and sub-techniques that are used to describe the tactics and procedures of cyber adversaries. It is a powerful tool for understanding the threat landscape and for developing effective defense strategies.

Rankiteo's analysis has identified several MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques associated with this incident, each with varying levels of confidence based on available evidence. Under the Initial Access tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts: Default Accounts (T1078.001) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including weak credentials/default passwords in IoT devices under vulnerability_exploited, and exploitation of default/weak credentials in IoT devices in root_causes and Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) with moderate to high confidence (85%), with evidence including targeted a single Australian endpoint (Azure public-facing service), and multivector assault implying exploitation of exposed cloud interfaces. Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Account Manipulation: Additional Cloud Credentials (T1098.001) with moderate to high confidence (70%), with evidence including compromised home routers and IoT cameras (potential credential reuse), and aisuru botnet leveraging 500,000+ source IPs (persistent infrastructure). Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Network Denial of Service: Direct Network Flood (T1498.001) with high confidence (100%), with evidence including 15.72 Tbps DDoS attack with 3.64 billion packets per second, multivector assault targeting Azure endpoint, and aisuru botnet (TurboMirai variant) as attack source and Endpoint Denial of Service: Application Exhaustion Flood (T1499.004) with high confidence (90%), with evidence including multivector assault implying layered floods (e.g., SYN, UDP, HTTP), and targeted single endpoint in Australia (application-layer focus). Under the Command and Control tactic, the analysis identified Web Service: Dead Drop Resolver (T1102.003) with moderate to high confidence (75%), with evidence including botnet (Aisuru/TurboMirai) coordinating 500K+ IPs, and residential ISPs as attack launchpads (decentralized C2). Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts (T1078.004) with moderate confidence (60%), with evidence including potential use of compromised IoT devices to mask botnet traffic as legitimate, and residential ISPs blending attack traffic with normal user activity. Under the Reconnaissance tactic, the analysis identified Vulnerability Scanning: Scanning IP Blocks (T1595.002) with moderate to high confidence (80%), with evidence including high_value_targets include cloud endpoints/gaming orgs (pre-attack probing), and aisuru botnet’s history of 20+ Tbps demonstration attacks (target selection). These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.