Experts have revealed a dangerous zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange. However, hackers have already managed to create an exploit to hack user systems. It is important to note that the problem affected hundreds of thousands of Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019. It is also important to note that no one has yet Information Security Specialist Saint Petersburg cannot predict how many users will be affected.
What is Microsoft Exchange, Information Security Specialist St. Petersburg
It is worth starting with the fact that Microsoft Exchange Server is software for working with email messages. It is a comprehensive system that allows you to perform any operations with letters. That is, it can provide shared access to various schedulers and tasks. Also, with the help of Microsoft Exchange Server, you can exchange instant messages. At the same time, the product of Microsoft is quite popular all over the world. Today, there are at least several tens of millions of users in the world. Those who use Microsoft Exchange Server for everyday work and communication. But as the well-known Information security specialist St. Petersburg, such popularity is due rather to habit.
It is important to understand that this software is a Microsoft product. Therefore, it is often pre-installed on the Windows operating system. Therefore, many OS users use it because they do not need to look for other programs. Also, everyone knows that Microsoft has a fairly good reputation. In particular, because it releases various updates and patches for its products weekly. But here it is important to understand that not all patches are useful and can help.
What's Wrong With the Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerability
Experts have recently discovered an extremely dangerous vulnerability that allows arbitrary code to be executed. That is, with the help of this bug hackers can easily penetrate the system and cause significant harm to users. At the same time, a huge number of devices around the world were at risk. Of course, Microsoft rushed to release a patch as soon as possible. However, it turned out that at that time there was already an exploit that allowed the vulnerability to be used. And after the release of the patch, an even more dangerous exploit appeared. And hackers rushed to create bots that looked for vulnerable programs to hack. Thus, it turned out that drawing attention to the problem only worsened the security of users. And now no one Information Security Specialist Ufa can't say how many systems hackers will be able to hack.
As of today, an exploit for a vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange Server allows:
- introduce malicious code;
- steal confidential data;
- install malware.
That is, the attacker will be able to gain full control over the system. The problem is further aggravated by the fact that Microsoft Exchange Server programs for older versions are not updated automatically. There are also a number of users who prefer to disable automatic updates. As a result, attackers can penetrate the system and obtain all the necessary information even after the release of a patch. Of course, Microsoft representatives have suggested that users update their software as soon as possible. The same recommendations are given by everyone Intern Information Security Moscow Online.
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