Microsoft Unveils Storm-0501’s Advanced Cloud Ransomware Attack Tactics

The group leverages cloud-native capabilities to first exfiltrate massive volumes of sensitive data, then systematically destroys the original data and any backups within the victim’s cloud environment before demanding a ransom.

The attack chain, as detailed by Microsoft, is a sophisticated blend of on-premises and cloud infiltration. It often begins with a compromise of a company’s local Active Directory. From this foothold, the attackers pivot to the cloud, targeting Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). Their primary objective is to find a high-privilege account, such as a Global Administrator, that lacks robust security, particularly multi-factor authentication (MFA).

In a recent campaign analyzed by Microsoft, Storm-0501 identified a synced, non-human Global Administrator account without a registered MFA method. The attackers reset the account’s password on-premises, which then synchronized to the cloud. By taking over this account, they were able to enroll their own MFA device, bypassing existing security policies and gaining complete control over the cloud domain.

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