Microsoft Set To Win Big With Blockchain !!BETTER!!

Therefore, Windows Setup failed because it wasn't able to migrate the corrupt file C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\S-1-5-18[CN]. This file is a local system certificate and can be safely deleted. Searching the setupact.log file for more details, the phrase "Shell application requested abort" is found in a location with the same timestamp as the lines in setuperr.log. This confirms our suspicion that this file is the cause of the upgrade failure:

First conceived in February 2018, the cloud supply chain blockchain program was launched into production in November 2020 with eight suppliers, and since then has been ramping up the volume of inventory and transactions in our commodities value chain.

We are in production with solid-state drive (SSD) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) components and onboarding the rest of our high-value commodities supply chain over the next year and looking beyond to the value of involving other large industry buyers.

The approach using blockchain forms a key foundational element of our financial controls and compliance initiative in its next phase. It provides control and auditability of transactions across our complex n-tier supply chain with operational agility and financial integrity. Through this effort, we have designed a converged enterprise resource planning (ERP) and blockchain value proposition for our cloud supply chain that is informing a pattern of usage of n-tier transactional integrity alongside the sophisticated user experience of traditional ERP systems.

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The bulk of attacks that Microsoft has observed at this time have been related to mass scanning by attackers attempting to thumbprint vulnerable systems, as well as scanning by security companies and researchers. An example pattern of attack would appear in a web request log with strings like the following:

In addition, HAFNIUM, a threat actor group operating out of China, has been observed utilizing the vulnerability to attack virtualization infrastructure to extend their typical targeting. In these attacks, HAFNIUM-associated systems were observed using a DNS service typically associated with testing activity to fingerprint systems.

Microsoft has also continued to observe malicious activity performing data leakage via the vulnerability without dropping a payload. This attack scenario could be especially impactful against network devices that have SSL termination, where the actor could leak secrets and data.

This activity is split between a percentage of small-scale campaigns that may be more targeted or related to testing, and the addition of CVE-2021-44428 to existing campaigns that were exploiting vulnerabilities to drop remote access tools. In the HabitsRAT case, the campaign was seen overlapping with infrastructure used in prior campaigns.

During our sustained monitoring of threats taking advantage of the Log4j 2 vulnerabilities, we observed activity related to attacks being propagated via a previously undisclosed vulnerability in the SolarWinds Serv-U software. We discovered that the vulnerability, now tracked as CVE-2021-35247, is an input validation vulnerability that could allow attackers to build a query given some input and send that query over the network without sanitation.

These capabilities integrate with the existing threat and vulnerability management experience and are gradually rolling out. As of December 27, 2021, discovery is based on installed application CPEs that are known to be vulnerable to Log4j RCE, as well as the presence of vulnerable Log4j Java Archive (JAR) files.

Note: Scan results may take some time to reach full coverage, and the number of discovered devices may be low at first but will grow as the scan reaches more devices. A regularly updated list of vulnerable products can be viewed in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal with matching recommendations. We will continue to review and update this list as new information becomes available.

We have released two new threat and vulnerability management capabilities that can significantly simplify the process of turning off JNDI lookup, a workaround that can prevent the exploitation of the Log4j vulnerabilities on most devices, using an environment variable called LOG4J_FORMAT_MSG_NO_LOOKUPS. These new capabilities provide security teams with the following:

For a more automated method, registered users can view their attack surface to understand tailored findings associated with their organization. Note, you must be registered with a corporate email and the automated attack surface will be limited. Digital Footprint customers can immediately understand what may be vulnerable and act swiftly and resolutely using the Attack Surface Intelligence Dashboard Log4J Insights tab.

Due to the broad network exploitation nature of vectors through which this vulnerability can be exploited and the fact that applying mitigations holistically across large environments will take time, we encourage defenders to look for signs of post-exploitation rather than fully relying on prevention. Observed post exploitation activity such as coin mining, lateral movement, and Cobalt Strike are detected with behavior-based detections.

Alerts with the following titles in the Security Center indicate threat activity related to exploitation of the Log4j vulnerability on your network and should be immediately investigated and remediated. These alerts are supported on both Windows and Linux platforms:

This query identifies anomalous child processes from the ws_TomcatService.exe process associated with the exploitation of the Log4j vulnerability in VMWare Horizon installations. These events warrant further investigation to determine if they are in fact related to a vulnerable Log4j application.

Microsoft Defender for IoT now pushes new threat intelligence packages to cloud-connected sensors upon release, click here for more information. Starting with sensor version 10.3, users can automatically receive up-to-date threat intelligence packages through Microsoft Defender for IoT.

Recommendation: Customers are recommended to enable WAF policy with Default Rule Set 1.0/1.1 on their Front Door deployments, or with OWASP ModSecurity Core Rule Set (CRS) versions 3.0/3.1 on Application Gateway V2 to immediately enable protection from this threat, if not already enabled. For customers who have already enabled DRS 1.0/1.1 or CRS 3.0/3.1, no action is needed. We will continue to monitor threat patterns and modify the above rule in response to emerging attack patterns as required.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) has provided a list of IOCs related to this attack and will update them with new indicators as they are discovered: -Sentinel/master/Sample Data/Feeds/Log4j_IOC_List.csv

At Microsoft we regularly encounter these situations, so we developed Windows Sandbox: an isolated, temporary, desktop environment where you can run untrusted software without the fear of lasting impact to your PC. Any software installed in Windows Sandbox stays only in the sandbox and cannot affect your host. Once Windows Sandbox is closed, all the software with all its files and state are permanently deleted.

At its core Windows Sandbox is a lightweight virtual machine, so it needs an operating system image to boot from. One of the key enhancements we have made for Windows Sandbox is the ability to use a copy of the Windows 10 installed on your computer, instead of downloading a new VHD image as you would have to do with an ordinary virtual machine.

More recently, Microsoft has worked with our graphics ecosystem partners to integrate modern graphics virtualization capabilities directly into DirectX and WDDM, the driver model used by display drivers on Windows.

This enables the Windows Sandbox VM to benefit from hardware accelerated rendering, with Windows dynamically allocating graphics resources where they are needed across the host and guest. The result is improved performance and responsiveness for apps running in Windows Sandbox, as well as improved battery life for graphics-heavy use cases.

Blockchain promises to solve this problem. The technology at the heart of bitcoin and other virtual currencies, blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. The ledger itself can also be programmed to trigger transactions automatically.

Each party on a blockchain has access to the entire database and its complete history. No single party controls the data or the information. Every party can verify the records of its transaction partners directly, without an intermediary.

Every transaction and its associated value are visible to anyone with access to the system. Each node, or user, on a blockchain has a unique 30-plus-character alphanumeric address that identifies it. Users can choose to remain anonymous or provide proof of their identity to others. Transactions occur between blockchain addresses.

The digital nature of the ledger means that blockchain transactions can be tied to computational logic and in essence programmed. So users can set up algorithms and rules that automatically trigger transactions between nodes.

With blockchain, we can imagine a world in which contracts are embedded in digital code and stored in transparent, shared databases, where they are protected from deletion, tampering, and revision. In this world every agreement, every process, every task, and every payment would have a digital record and signature that could be identified, validated, stored, and shared. Intermediaries like lawyers, brokers, and bankers might no longer be necessary. Individuals, organizations, machines, and algorithms would freely transact and interact with one another with little friction. This is the immense potential of blockchain. 2b1af7f3a8