Microsoft has warned that adversaries are using OAuth applications as an automation tool to deploy virtual machines (VMs) for cryptocurrency mining and launch phishing attacks. "Threat actors compromise user accounts to create, modify, and grant high privileges to OAuth applications that they can misuse to hide malicious activity," the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team said in an analysis. "The misuse of OAuth also enables threat actors to maintain access to applications even if they lose access to the initially compromised account." UPCOMING WEBINAR [ Beat AI-Powered Threats with Zero Trust – Webinar for Security Professionals ](https://thehacker.news/zero-trust-attack-surface?source=inside) Traditional security measures won't cut it in today's world. It's time for Zero Trust Security. Secure your data like never before. Join Now OAuth, short for Open Authorization, is an authorization and delegation framework (as opposed to authentication) that provides applications the ability to securely access information from other websites without handing over passwords. In the attacks detailed by Microsoft, threat actors have been observed launching phishing or password-spraying attacks against poorly secured accounts with permissions to create or modify OAuth applications. One such adversary is Storm-1283, which has leveraged a compromised user account to create an OAuth application and deploy VMs for cryptomining. Furthermore, the attackers modified existing OAuth applications…Read More