The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) has detected nation-state activity associated with the threat actor tracked as NOBELIUM, attempting to gain access to downstream customers of multiple cloud service providers (CSP), managed service providers (MSP), and other IT services organizations (referred to as “service providers” for the rest of this blog) that have been granted administrative or privileged access by other organizations. The targeted activity has been observed against organizations based in the United States and across Europe since May 2021. MSTIC assesses that NOBELIUM has launched a campaign against these organizations to exploit existing technical trust relationships between the provider organizations and the governments, think tanks, and other companies they serve. NOBELIUM is the same actor behind the SolarWinds compromise in 2020, and this latest activity shares the hallmarks of the actor’s compromise-one-to-compromise-many approach. Microsoft has notified known victims of these activities through our nation-state notification process and worked with them and other industry partners to expand our investigation, resulting in new insights and disruption of the threat actor throughout stages of this campaign.
Microsoft has observed NOBELIUM targeting privileged accounts of service providers to move laterally in cloud environments, leveraging the trusted relationships to gain access to downstream customers and enable further attacks or access targeted systems. These attacks are not the result of a product security vulnerability but rather a continuation of NOBELIUM’s use of a diverse and dynamic toolkit that includes sophisticated malware, password sprays, supply chain attacks, token theft, API abuse, and spear phishing to compromise user accounts and leverage the access of those accounts. These attacks have highlighted the need for administrators to adopt strict account security practices and take additional measures to secure their environments.
In the observed supply chain attacks, downstream customers of service providers and other organizations are also being targeted by NOBELIUM. In these provider/customer relationships, customers delegate administrative rights to the provider that enable the provider to manage the customer’s tenants as if they were an administrator within the customer’s organization. By stealing credentials and compromising accounts at the service provider level, NOBELIUM can take advantage of several potential vectors, including but not limited to delegated administrative privileges (DAP), and then leverage that access to extend downstream attacks through trusted channels like externally facing VPNs or unique provider-customer solutions that enable network access. To reduce the potential impact of this NOBELIUM activity, Microsoft encourages all of our partners and customers to immediately review the guidance below and implement risk mitigations, harden environments, and investigate suspicious behaviors that match the tactics described in this blog. MSTIC continues to observe, monitor, and notify affected customers and partners through our nation-state notification process. Microsoft Detection and Response Team (DART) and Microsoft Threat Experts have also engaged directly with affected customers to assist with incident response and drive better detection and guidance around this activity.
