ASCII smuggling: Review phishing with Defender

ASCII smuggling - phishing detection in Microsoft Defender

Microsoft Threat Intelligence describes a phishing campaign that moves a technique known from AI security research into conventional email attacks: ASCII smuggling. The attackers inserted invisible Unicode tag characters into words such as “funding” so filters or tokenizers no longer saw one clean string. Microsoft also gives concrete detection and protection guidance for Microsoft Defender … Read more

Review Teams helpdesk impersonation with Defender XDR

Teams helpdesk - Review Defender XDR signals

Microsoft Threat Intelligence reports an active campaign in which external contacts in Microsoft Teams impersonate IT or helpdesk staff. The entry point is not a Teams vulnerability, but a trusted-looking support workflow: the user is persuaded to start or approve a remote session, after which the operator uses PowerShell to download and silently install an … Read more

Review counterfeit installers with Defender XDR

Fake Installer - Review Defender XDR signals

Microsoft Defender Experts is tracking an active campaign in which attackers use counterfeit software download pages to deliver malware through installers that appear legitimate. For small and midsized businesses, this matters because the entry point looks ordinary: a browser, a ZIP archive, and an installer. Microsoft, however, describes a chain with persistence, Microsoft Defender tampering, … Read more

Entra CAE: Revoke service principal tokens faster

Microsoft Entra CAE - revoke service principal tokens

Microsoft describes an important Entra update for automated access: access tokens issued to service principals can be made unusable faster with Continuous Access Evaluation when a workload identity is disabled, deleted, or detected as risky. For small and midsize organizations, this matters because scripts and integrations often run with broad application permissions. If a secret … Read more

Review reverse tunnels with Defender

TerminalFix - Review reverse tunnels with Microsoft Defender

Microsoft Threat Intelligence is warning about a TerminalFix campaign that extends the familiar ClickFix tactic: a fake Cloudflare CAPTCHA page tricks users into running a copied terminal command themselves. For small and midsized businesses, this matters because the attack does not stop at a simple infostealer after first execution. Microsoft describes a multistage chain with … Read more