Because Kerberoasting enables cyberthreat actors to steal credentials and quickly navigate through devices and networks, it’s essential for administrators to take steps to reduce potential cyberattack surfaces. This blog explains Kerberoasting risks and provides recommended actions administrators can take now to help prevent successful Kerberoasting cyberattacks. 

What is Kerberoasting? 

Kerberoasting is a cyberattack that targets the Kerberos authentication protocol with the intent to steal AD credentials. The Kerberos protocol conveys user authentication state in a type of message called a service ticket which is encrypted using a key derived from an account password. Users with AD credentials can request tickets to any service account in AD.  

In a Kerberoasting cyberattack, a threat actor that has taken over an AD user account will request tickets to other accounts and then perform offline brute-force attacks to guess and steal account passwords. Once the cyberthreat actor has credentials to the service account, they potentially gain more privileges within the environment. 

AD only issues and encrypts service tickets for accounts that have Service Principal Names (SPNs) registered. An SPN signifies that an account is a service account, not a normal user account, and that it should be used to host or run services, such as SQL Server. Since Kerberoasting requires access to encrypted service tickets, it can only target accounts that have an SPN in AD. 

SPNs are not typically assigned to normal user accounts which means they are better protected against Kerberoasting. Services that run as AD machine accounts instead of as standalone service accounts are better protected against compromise using Kerberoasting. AD machine account credentials are long and randomly generated so they contain sufficient entropy to render brute-force cyberattacks impractical.  

The accounts most vulnerable to Kerberoasting are those with weak passwords and those that use weaker encryption algorithms, especially RC4. RC4 is more susceptible to the cyberattack because it uses no salt or iterated hash when converting a password to an encryption key, allowing the cyberthreat actor to guess more passwords quickly. However, other encryption algorithms are still vulnerable when weak passwords are used. While AD will not try to use RC4 by default, RC4 is currently enabled by default, meaning a cyberthreat actor can attempt to request tickets encrypted using RC4. RC4 will be deprecated, and we intend to disable it by default in a future update to Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2025. 

What are the risks associated with Kerberoasting? 

Kerberoasting is a low-tech, high-impact attack. There are many open-source tools which can be used to query potential target accounts, get service tickets to those accounts, and then use brute force cracking techniques to obtain the account password offline. 

This type of password theft helps threat actors pose as legitimate service accounts and continue to move vertically and laterally through the network and machines. Kerberoasting typically targets high privilege accounts which can be used for a variety of attacks such as rapidly distributing malicious payloads like ransomware to other end user devices and services within a network.    

Accounts without SPNs, such as standard user or administrator accounts, are susceptible to similar brute-force password guessing attacks and the recommendations below can be applied to them as well to mitigate risks. 

How to detect Kerberoasting? 

Administrators can use the techniques described below to detect Kerberoasting cyberattacks in their network. 

• Check for ticket requests with unusual Kerberos encryption types. Cyberthreat actors can downgrade Kerberos ticket encryption to RC4 since cracking it is significantly faster. Admins can check the events in the Microsoft Defender XDR and filter the results based on the ticket encryption type to check for weaker encryption type usage.  

• Check for alerts from Microsoft Defender. Microsoft Defender XDR will raise an alert with an external ID 2410 for suspected Kerberos SPN exposure.  

• Check for repeated service ticket requests. Check if a single user is requesting multiple service tickets for Kerberoasting-vulnerable accounts in a short time period.  

Recommendations to help prevent Kerberoasting from succeeding 

Microsoft recommends that IT administrators take the following steps to help harden their environments against Kerberoasting: 

• Use Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSA) or Delegated Managed Service Accounts (dMSA) wherever possible:  
  • These accounts are ideal for multi-server applications that require centralized credential management and enhanced security against credential-based attacks, such as IIS, SQL Server, or other Windows services running in a domain-joined environment. 
  • Group Managed Service Account (gMSA) is an Active Directory account type that allows multiple servers or services to use the same account with automatic password management and simplified SPN handling. Passwords for gMSAs are 120 characters long, complex, and randomly generated, making them highly resistant to brute-force cyberattacks using currently known methods.  
  • Delegated Managed Service Accounts (dMSA) are the newest iteration of managed service accounts available on Windows Server 2025. Like gMSAs, they restrict which machines can make use of the accounts and they provide the same password mitigations against Keberoasting. However, unlike gMSAs, dMSAs have the added benefit of supporting seamless migration of standalone service accounts with passwords to the dMSA account type. They can also be optionally integrated with Credential Guard so that even if the server using dMSA is compromised, the service account credentials remain protected.  
• If customers cannot use gMSA or dMSA, then manually set randomly generated, long passwords for service accounts:  
  • Service account administrators should maintain at least a 14-character minimum password. If possible, we recommend setting even longer passwords and randomly generating them for service accounts which will provide better protection against Kerberoasting. This recommendation also applies to normal user accounts.  
  • Ban commonly used passwords and audit the passwords for service accounts so that there is an inventory of accounts with weak passwords and can be remediated.  

• Make sure all service accounts are configured to use AES (128 and 256 bit) for Kerberos service ticket encryption: 
  • Once the encryption type for a service account is updated to Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), change the password for the account to ensure that the password is encrypted using AES. If the password is not changed after updating the encryption type, the account may still be vulnerable to Kerberoasting. AES alone is not a solution for brute forcing and needs to be used in combination with strong passwords. A weak password can still be brute forced even if AES is used for encryption. 
  • In a future update to Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2025 we intend to disable RC4 encryption by default. We recommended manually disabling the RC4 encryption type on service accounts in environments without these updates.  
  • For more information on configuring encryption type, please visit: Active Directory Hardening Series – Part 4 – Enforcing AES for Kerberos – Microsoft Community Hub, Network security Configure encryption types allowed for Kerberos – Windows 10 | Microsoft Learn, and Decrypting the Selection of Supported Kerberos Encryption Types – Microsoft Community Hub 
• Audit the user accounts with SPNs:  
  • User accounts with SPNs should be audited. SPNs should be removed from accounts where they are not needed to reduce the cyberattack surface. 

Conclusion 

Kerberoasting is a threat to Active Directory environments due to its ability to exploit weak passwords and gain unauthorized access to service accounts. By understanding how Kerberoasting works and implementing the recommended guidance shared in this blog, organizations can significantly reduce their exposure to Kerberoasting.  

We truly believe that security is a team effort. By partnering with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), app developers, and others in the ecosystem, along with helping people to be better at protecting themselves, we are delivering a Windows experience that is more secure by design and secure by default. The Windows Security Book is available to help you learn more about what makes it easy for users to stay secure with Windows.

Next steps with Microsoft Security

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity. 

References  

Directory Hardening Series – Part 4 – Enforcing AES for Kerberos – Microsoft Community Hub 

Stopping Active Directory attacks and other post-exploitation behavior with AMSI and machine learning | Microsoft Security Blog 

 Network security Configure encryption types allowed for Kerberos – Windows 10 | Microsoft Learn,  

Decrypting the Selection of Supported Kerberos Encryption Types – Microsoft Community Hub 

Delegated Managed Service Accounts FAQ | Microsoft Learn 

The post Microsoft’s guidance to help mitigate Kerberoasting   appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

To meet those needs:

1. Windows provides a range of operating modes that customers can choose from. This includes the ability to limit what can run to only approved software and drivers. This can increase security and reliability by making Windows operate in a mode closer to mobile phones or appliances.
2. Customers can choose integrated security monitoring and detection capabilities that are included with Windows. Or they can choose to replace or supplement this security with a wide variety of choices from a vibrant open ecosystem of vendors.

In this blog post, we examine the recent CrowdStrike outage and provide a technical overview of the root cause. We also explain why security products use kernel-mode drivers today and the safety measures Windows provides for third-party solutions. In addition, we share how customers and security vendors can better leverage the integrated security capabilities of Windows for increased security and reliability. Lastly, we provide a look into how Windows will enhance extensibility for future security products.

CrowdStrike recently published a Preliminary Post Incident Review analyzing their outage. In their blog post, CrowdStrike describes the root cause as a memory safety issue—specifically a read out-of-bounds access violation in the CSagent driver. We leverage the Microsoft WinDBG Kernel Debugger and several extensions that are available free to anyone to perform this analysis. Customers with crash dumps can reproduce our steps with these tools.

Based on Microsoft’s analysis of the Windows Error Reporting (WER) kernel crash dumps related to the incident, we observe global crash patterns that reflect this:

FAULTING_THREAD:  ffffe402fe868040

READ_ADDRESS:  ffff840500000074 Paged pool

MM_INTERNAL_CODE:  2

IMAGE_NAME:  csagent.sys

MODULE_NAME: csagent

FAULTING_MODULE: fffff80671430000 csagent

PROCESS_NAME:  System

TRAP_FRAME:  ffff94058305ec20 -- (.trap 0xffff94058305ec20)
.trap 0xffff94058305ec20
NOTE: The trap frame does not contain all registers.
Some register values may be zeroed or incorrect.
rax=ffff94058305f200 rbx=0000000000000000 rcx=0000000000000003
rdx=ffff94058305f1d0 rsi=0000000000000000 rdi=0000000000000000
rip=fffff806715114ed rsp=ffff94058305edb0 rbp=ffff94058305eeb0
 r8=ffff840500000074  r9=0000000000000000 r10=0000000000000000
r11=0000000000000014 r12=0000000000000000 r13=0000000000000000
r14=0000000000000000 r15=0000000000000000
iopl=0         nv up ei ng nz na po nc
csagent+0xe14ed:
fffff806`715114ed 458b08          mov     r9d,dword ptr [r8] ds:ffff8405`00000074=????????
.trap
Resetting default scope

STACK_TEXT:  
ffff9405`8305e9f8 fffff806`5388c1e4     : 00000000`00000050 ffff8405`00000074 00000000`00000000 ffff9405`8305ec20 : nt!KeBugCheckEx 
ffff9405`8305ea00 fffff806`53662d8c     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 ffff8405`00000074 : nt!MiSystemFault+0x1fcf94  
ffff9405`8305eb00 fffff806`53827529     : ffffffff`00000030 ffff8405`af8351a2 ffff9405`8305f020 ffff9405`8305f020 : nt!MmAccessFault+0x29c 
ffff9405`8305ec20 fffff806`715114ed     : 00000000`00000000 ffff9405`8305eeb0 ffff8405`b0bcd00c ffff8405`b0bc505c : nt!KiPageFault+0x369 
ffff9405`8305edb0 fffff806`714e709e     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`e01f008d ffff9405`8305f102 fffff806`716baaf8 : csagent+0xe14ed
ffff9405`8305ef50 fffff806`714e8335     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000010 00000000`00000002 ffff8405`b0bc501c : csagent+0xb709e
ffff9405`8305f080 fffff806`717220c7     : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 ffff9405`8305f382 00000000`00000000 : csagent+0xb8335
ffff9405`8305f1b0 fffff806`7171ec44     : ffff9405`8305f668 fffff806`53eac2b0 ffff8405`afad4ac0 00000000`00000003 : csagent+0x2f20c7
ffff9405`8305f430 fffff806`71497a31     : 00000000`0000303b ffff9405`8305f6f0 ffff8405`afb1d140 ffffe402`ff251098 : csagent+0x2eec44
ffff9405`8305f5f0 fffff806`71496aee     : ffff8405`afb1d140 fffff806`71541e7e 00000000`000067a0 fffff806`7168f8f0 : csagent+0x67a31
ffff9405`8305f760 fffff806`7149685b     : ffff9405`8305f9d8 ffff8405`afb1d230 ffff8405`afb1d140 ffffe402`fe8644f8 : csagent+0x66aee
ffff9405`8305f7d0 fffff806`715399ea     : 00000000`4a8415aa ffff8eee`1c68ca4f 00000000`00000000 ffff8405`9e95fc30 : csagent+0x6685b
ffff9405`8305f850 fffff806`7148efbb     : 00000000`00000000 ffff9405`8305fa59 ffffe402`fe864050 ffffe402`fede62c0 : csagent+0x1099ea
ffff9405`8305f980 fffff806`7148edd7     : ffffffff`ffffffa1 fffff806`7152e5c1 ffffe402`fe864050 00000000`00000001 : csagent+0x5efbb
ffff9405`8305fac0 fffff806`7152e681     : 00000000`00000000 fffff806`53789272 00000000`00000002 ffffe402`fede62c0 : csagent+0x5edd7
ffff9405`8305faf0 fffff806`53707287     : ffffe402`fe868040 00000000`00000080 fffff806`7152e510 006fe47f`b19bbdff : csagent+0xfe681
ffff9405`8305fb30 fffff806`5381b8e4     : ffff9680`37651180 ffffe402`fe868040 fffff806`53707230 00000000`00000000 : nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x57 
ffff9405`8305fb80 00000000`00000000     : ffff9405`83060000 ffff9405`83059000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiStartSystemThread+0x34 

Digging in more to this crash dump, we can restore the stack frame at the time of the access violation to learn more about its origin. Unfortunately, with WER data we only receive a compressed version of state and thus we cannot disassemble backwards to see a larger set of instructions prior to the crash, but we can see in the disassembly that there is a check for NULL before performing a read at the address specified in the R8 register:

6: kd> .trap 0xffff94058305ec20
.trap 0xffff94058305ec20
NOTE: The trap frame does not contain all registers.
Some register values may be zeroed or incorrect.
rax=ffff94058305f200 rbx=0000000000000000 rcx=0000000000000003
rdx=ffff94058305f1d0 rsi=0000000000000000 rdi=0000000000000000
rip=fffff806715114ed rsp=ffff94058305edb0 rbp=ffff94058305eeb0
 r8=ffff840500000074  r9=0000000000000000 r10=0000000000000000
r11=0000000000000014 r12=0000000000000000 r13=0000000000000000
r14=0000000000000000 r15=000000000000
000
iopl=0         nv up ei ng nz na po nc
csagent+0xe14ed:
fffff806`715114ed 458b08          mov     r9d,dword ptr [r8] ds:ffff8405`00000074=????????
6: kd> !pte ffff840500000074
!pte ffff840500000074
                                           VA ffff840500000074
PXE at FFFFABD5EAF57840    PPE at FFFFABD5EAF080A0    PDE at FFFFABD5E1014000    PTE at FFFFABC202800000
contains 0A00000277200863  contains 0000000000000000
pfn 277200    ---DA--KWEV  contains 0000000000000000
not valid

6: kd> ub fffff806`715114ed
ub fffff806`715114ed
csagent+0xe14d9:
fffff806`715114d9 04d8            add     al,0D8h
fffff806`715114db 750b            jne     csagent+0xe14e8 (fffff806`715114e8)
fffff806`715114dd 4d85c0          test    r8,r8
fffff806`715114e0 7412            je      csagent+0xe14f4 (fffff806`715114f4)
fffff806`715114e2 450fb708        movzx   r9d,word ptr [r8]
fffff806`715114e6 eb08            jmp     csagent+0xe14f0 (fffff806`715114f0)
fffff806`715114e8 4d85c0          test    r8,r8
fffff806`715114eb 7407            je      csagent+0xe14f4 (fffff806`715114f4)
6: kd> ub fffff806`715114d9
ub fffff806`715114d9
                          ^ Unable to find valid previous instruction for 'ub fffff806`715114d9'
6: kd> u fffff806`715114eb
u fffff806`715114eb
csagent+0xe14eb:
fffff806`715114eb 7407            je      csagent+0xe14f4 (fffff806`715114f4)
fffff806`715114ed 458b08          mov     r9d,dword ptr [r8]
fffff806`715114f0 4d8b5008        mov     r10,qword ptr [r8+8]
fffff806`715114f4 4d8bc2          mov     r8,r10
fffff806`715114f7 488d4d90        lea     rcx,[rbp-70h]
fffff806`715114fb 488bd6          mov     rdx,rsi
fffff806`715114fe e8212c0000      call    csagent+0xe4124 (fffff806`71514124)
fffff806`71511503 4533d2          xor     r10d,r10d

6: kd> db ffff840500000074
db ffff840500000074
ffff8405`00000074  ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??-?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??  ????????????????
ffff8405`00000084  ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??-?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??  ????????????????
ffff8405`00000094  ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??-?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??  ????????????????
ffff8405`000000a4  ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??-?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??  ????????????????
ffff8405`000000b4  ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??-?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??  ????????????????
ffff8405`000000c4  ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??-?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??  ????????????????
ffff8405`000000d4  ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??-?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??  ????????????????
ffff8405`000000e4  ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??-?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??  ????????????????

Our observations confirm CrowdStrike’s analysis that this was a read-out-of-bounds memory safety error in the CrowdStrike developed CSagent.sys driver.

We can also see that the csagent.sys module is registered as a file system filter driver commonly used by anti-malware agents to receive notifications about file operations such as the creation or modification of a file. This is often used by security products to scan any new file saved to disk, such as downloading a file via the browser.

File System filters can also be used as a signal for security solutions attempting to monitor the behavior of the system. CrowdStrike noted in their blog that part of their content update was changing the sensor’s logic relating to data around named pipe creation. The File System filter driver API allows the driver to receive a call when named pipe activity (e.g., named pipe creation) occurs on the system that could enable the detection of malicious behavior. The general function of the driver correlates to the information shared by CrowdStrike.

6: kd>!reg querykey \REGISTRY\MACHINE\system\ControlSet001\services\csagent

Hive         ffff84059ca7b000
KeyNode      ffff8405a6f67f9c

[SubKeyAddr]         [SubKeyName]
ffff8405a6f683ac     Instances
ffff8405a6f6854c     Sim

 Use '!reg keyinfo ffff84059ca7b000 <SubKeyAddr>' to dump the subkey details

[ValueType]         [ValueName]                   [ValueData]
REG_DWORD           Type                          2
REG_DWORD           Start                         1
REG_DWORD           ErrorControl                  1
REG_EXPAND_SZ       ImagePath                     \??\C:\Windows\system32\drivers\CrowdStrike\csagent.sys
REG_SZ              DisplayName                   CrowdStrike Falcon
REG_SZ              Group                         FSFilter Activity Monitor
REG_MULTI_SZ        DependOnService               FltMgr\0
REG_SZ              CNFG                          Config.sys
REG_DWORD           SupportedFeatures             f

We can see the control channel file version 291 specified in the CrowdStrike analysis is also present in the crash indicating the file was read.

Determining how the file itself correlates to the access violation observed in the crash dump would require additional debugging of the driver using these tools but is outside of the scope of this blog post.

!ca ffffde8a870a8290

ControlArea  @ ffffde8a870a8290
  Segment      ffff880ce0689c10  Flink      ffffde8a87267718  Blink        ffffde8a870a7d98
  Section Ref                 0  Pfn Ref                   b  Mapped Views                0
  User Ref                    0  WaitForDel                0  Flush Count                 0
  File Object  ffffde8a879b29a0  ModWriteCount             0  System Views                0
  WritableRefs                0  PartitionId                0  
  Flags (8008080) File WasPurged OnUnusedList 

      \Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike\C-00000291-00000000-00000032.sys

1: kd> !ntfskd.ccb ffff880ce06f6970
!ntfskd.ccb ffff880ce06f6970

   Ccb: ffff880c`e06f6970
 Flags: 00008003 Cleanup OpenAsFile IgnoreCase
Flags2: 00000841 OpenComplete AccessAffectsOplocks SegmentObjectReferenced
  Type: UserFileOpen
FileObj: ffffde8a879b29a0

(018)  ffff880c`db937370  FullFileName [\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike\C-00000291-00000000-00000032.sys]
(020) 000000000000004C  LastFileNameOffset 
(022) 0000000000000000  EaModificationCount 
(024) 0000000000000000  NextEaOffset 
(048) FFFF880CE06F69F8  Lcb 
(058) 0000000000000002  TypeOfOpen 

We can leverage the crash dump to determine if any other drivers supplied by CrowdStrike may exist on the running system during the crash.

6: kd> lmDvmCSFirmwareAnalysis
lmDvmCSFirmwareAnalysis
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff806`58920000 fffff806`5893c000   CSFirmwareAnalysis   (deferred)             
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\CSFirmwareAnalysis.sys
    Image name: CSFirmwareAnalysis.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data  Symbol Reload
    Timestamp:        Mon Mar 18 11:32:14 2024 (65F888AE)
    CheckSum:         0002020E
    ImageSize:        0001C000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
    Information from resource tables:
6: kd> lmDvmcspcm4
lmDvmcspcm4
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff806`71870000 fffff806`7187d000   cspcm4     (deferred)             
    Image path: \??\C:\Windows\system32\drivers\CrowdStrike\cspcm4.sys
    Image name: cspcm4.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data  Symbol Reload
    Timestamp:        Mon Jul  8 18:33:22 2024 (668C9362)
    CheckSum:         00012F69
    ImageSize:        0000D000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
    Information from resource tables:
6: kd> lmDvmcsboot.sys
lmDvmcsboot.sys
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name

Unloaded modules:
fffff806`587d0000 fffff806`587dc000   CSBoot.sys
    Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
    Checksum:  00000000
    ImageSize:  0000C000

6: kd> !reg querykey \REGISTRY\MACHINE\system\ControlSet001\services\csboot
!reg querykey \REGISTRY\MACHINE\system\ControlSet001\services\csboot

Hive         ffff84059ca7b000
KeyNode      ffff8405a6f68924

[ValueType]         [ValueName]                   [ValueData]
REG_DWORD           Type                          1
REG_DWORD           Start                         0
REG_DWORD           ErrorControl                  1
REG_EXPAND_SZ       ImagePath                     system32\drivers\CrowdStrike\CSBoot.sys
REG_SZ              DisplayName                   CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor Boot Driver
REG_SZ              Group                         Early-Launch
6: kd> !reg querykey \REGISTRY\MACHINE\system\ControlSet001\services\csdevicecontrol
!reg querykey \REGISTRY\MACHINE\system\ControlSet001\services\csdevicecontrol

Hive         ffff84059ca7b000
KeyNode      ffff8405a6f694ac

[SubKeyAddr]         [VolatileSubKeyName]
ffff84059ce196c4     Enum

 Use '!reg keyinfo ffff84059ca7b000 <SubKeyAddr>' to dump the subkey details

[ValueType]         [ValueName]                   [ValueData]
REG_DWORD           Type                          1
REG_DWORD           Start                         3
REG_DWORD           ErrorControl                  1
REG_DWORD           Tag                           1f
REG_EXPAND_SZ       ImagePath                     \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\CSDeviceControl.sys
REG_SZ              DisplayName                   @oem40.inf,%DeviceControl.SVCDESC%;CrowdStrike Device Control Service
REG_SZ              Group                         Base
REG_MULTI_SZ        Owners                        oem40.inf\0!csdevicecontrol.inf_amd64_b6725a84d4688d5a\0!csdevicecontrol.inf_amd64_016e965488e83578\0
REG_DWORD           BootFlags                     14
6: kd> !reg querykey \REGISTRY\MACHINE\system\ControlSet001\services\csagent
!reg querykey \REGISTRY\MACHINE\system\ControlSet001\services\csagent

Hive         ffff84059ca7b000
KeyNode      ffff8405a6f67f9c

[SubKeyAddr]         [SubKeyName]
ffff8405a6f683ac     Instances
ffff8405a6f6854c     Sim

 Use '!reg keyinfo ffff84059ca7b000 <SubKeyAddr>' to dump the subkey details

[ValueType]         [ValueName]                   [ValueData]
REG_DWORD           Type                          2
REG_DWORD           Start                         1
REG_DWORD           ErrorControl                  1
REG_EXPAND_SZ       ImagePath                     \??\C:\Windows\system32\drivers\CrowdStrike\csagent.sys
REG_SZ              DisplayName                   CrowdStrike Falcon
REG_SZ              Group                         FSFilter Activity Monitor
REG_MULTI_SZ        DependOnService               FltMgr\0
REG_SZ              CNFG                          Config.sys
REG_DWORD           SupportedFeatures             f

6: kd> lmDvmCSFirmwareAnalysis
lmDvmCSFirmwareAnalysis
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff806`58920000 fffff806`5893c000   CSFirmwareAnalysis   (deferred)             
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\CSFirmwareAnalysis.sys
    Image name: CSFirmwareAnalysis.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data  Symbol Reload
    Timestamp:        Mon Mar 18 11:32:14 2024 (65F888AE)
    CheckSum:         0002020E
    ImageSize:        0001C000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
    Information from resource tables:
6: kd> !reg querykey \REGISTRY\MACHINE\system\ControlSet001\services\csfirmwareanalysis
!reg querykey \REGISTRY\MACHINE\system\ControlSet001\services\csfirmwareanalysis

Hive         ffff84059ca7b000
KeyNode      ffff8405a6f69d9c

[SubKeyAddr]         [VolatileSubKeyName]
ffff84059ce197cc     Enum

 Use '!reg keyinfo ffff84059ca7b000 <SubKeyAddr>' to dump the subkey details

[ValueType]         [ValueName]                   [ValueData]
REG_DWORD           Type                          1
REG_DWORD           Start                         0
REG_DWORD           ErrorControl                  1
REG_DWORD           Tag                           6
REG_EXPAND_SZ       ImagePath                     system32\DRIVERS\CSFirmwareAnalysis.sys
REG_SZ              DisplayName                   @oem43.inf,%FirmwareAnalysis.SVCDESC%;CrowdStrike Firmware Analysis Service
REG_SZ              Group                         Boot Bus Extender
REG_MULTI_SZ        Owners                        oem43.inf\0!csfirmwareanalysis.inf_amd64_12861fc608fb1440\0
6: kd> !reg querykey \REGISTRY\MACHINE\system\Controlset001\control\earlylaunch
!reg querykey \REGISTRY\MACHINE\system\Controlset001\control\earlylaunch

As we can see from the above analysis, CrowdStrike loads four driver modules. One of those modules receives dynamic control and content updates frequently based on the CrowdStrike Preliminary Post-incident-review timeline.

We can leverage the unique stack and attributes of this crash to identify the Windows crash reports generated by this specific CrowdStrike programming error. It’s worth noting the number of devices which generated crash reports is a subset of the number of impacted devices previously shared by Microsoft in our blog post, because crash reports are sampled and collected only from customers who choose to upload their crashes to Microsoft. Customers who choose to enable crash dump sharing help both driver vendors and Microsoft to identify and remediate quality issues and crashes.

We make this information available to driver owners so they can assess their own reliability via the Hardware Dev Center analytics dashboard. As we can see from the above, any reliability problem like this invalid memory access issue can lead to widespread availability issues when not combined with safe deployment practices. Let’s dig into why security solutions leverage kernel drivers on Windows.

Why do security solutions leverage kernel drivers?

Many security vendors such as CrowdStrike and Microsoft leverage a kernel driver architecture and there are several reasons for this.

Visibility and enforcement of security related events

Kernel drivers allow for system wide visibility, and the capability to load in early boot to detect threats like boot kits and root kits which can load before user-mode applications. In addition, Microsoft provides a rich set of capabilities such as system event callbacks for process and thread creation and filter drivers which can watch for events like file creation, deletion, or modification. Kernel activity can also trigger call backs for drivers to decide when to block activities like file or process creations. Many vendors also use drivers to collect a variety of network information in the kernel using the NDIS driver class.

Performance

Kernel drivers are often utilized by security vendors for potential performance benefits. For example, analysis or data collection for high throughput network activity may benefit from a kernel driver. There are many scenarios where data collection and analysis can be optimized for operation outside of kernel mode and Microsoft continues to partner with the ecosystem to improve performance and provide best practices to achieve parity outside of kernel mode.

Tamper resistance

A second benefit of loading into kernel mode is tamper resistance. Security products want to ensure that their software cannot be disabled by malware, targeted attacks, or malicious insiders, even when those attackers have admin-level privileges. They also want to ensure that their drivers load as early as possible so that they can observe system events at the earliest possible time. Windows provides a mechanism to launch drivers marked as Early Launch Antimalware (ELAM) early in the boot process for this reason. CrowdStrike signs the above CSboot driver as ELAM, enabling it to load early in the boot sequence.

In the general case, there is a tradeoff that security vendors must rationalize when it comes to kernel drivers. Kernel drivers provide the above properties at the cost of resilience. Since kernel drivers run at the most trusted level of Windows, where containment and recovery capabilities are by nature constrained, security vendors must carefully balance needs like visibility and tamper resistance with the risk of operating within kernel mode.

All code operating at kernel level requires extensive validation because it cannot fail and restart like a normal user application. This is universal across all operating systems. Internally at Microsoft, we have invested in moving complex Windows core services from kernel to user mode, such as font file parsing from kernel to user mode.

It is possible today for security tools to balance security and reliability. For example, security vendors can use minimal sensors that run in kernel mode for data collection and enforcement limiting exposure to availability issues. The remainder of the key product functionality includes managing updates, parsing content, and other operations can occur isolated within user mode where recoverability is possible. This demonstrates the best practice of minimizing kernel usage while still maintaining a robust security posture and strong visibility.

Windows provides several user mode protection approaches for anti-tampering, like Virtualization-based security (VBS) Enclaves and Protected Processes that vendors can use to protect their key security processes. Windows also provides ETW events and user-mode interfaces like Antimalware Scan Interface for event visibility. These robust mechanisms can be used to reduce the amount of kernel code needed to create a security solution, which balances security and robustness.

How does Windows help ensure the quality of security related third-party products?

Microsoft engages with third-party security vendors through an industry forum called the Microsoft Virus Initiative (MVI). This group consists of Microsoft and Security Industry and was created to establish a dialogue and collaboration across the Windows security ecosystem to improve robustness in the way security products use the platform. With MVI, Microsoft and vendors collaborate on the Windows platform to define reliable extension points and platform improvements, as well as share information about how to best protect our customers.

Microsoft works with members of MVI to ensure compatibility with Windows updates, improve performance, and address reliability issues. MVI partners actively participating in the program contribute to making the ecosystem more resilient and gain benefits including technical briefings, feedback loops with Microsoft product teams, and access to antimalware platform features such as ELAM and Protected Processes. Microsoft also provides runtime protection such as Patch Guard to prevent disruptive behavior from kernel driver types like anti-malware.

In addition, all drivers signed by the Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) must run a series of tests and attest to a number of quality checks, including using fuzzers, running static code analysis and testing under runtime driver verification, among other techniques. These tests have been developed to ensure that best practices around security and reliability are followed. Microsoft includes all these tools in the Windows Driver Kit used by all driver developers. A list of the resources and tools is available here.

All WHQL signed drivers are run through Microsoft’s ingestion checks and malware scans and must pass before being approved for signing. Additionally, if a third-party vendor chooses to distribute their driver via Windows Update (WU), the driver also goes through Microsoft’s flighting and gradual rollout processes to observe quality and ensure the driver meets the necessary quality criteria for a broad release.

Can customers deploy Windows in a higher security mode to increase reliability?

Windows at its core is an open and versatile OS, and it can easily be locked down for increased security using integrated tools. In addition, Windows is constantly increasing security defaults, including dozens of new security features enabled by default in Windows 11.

Security features enabled by default in Windows 11

Windows has integrated security features to self-defend. This includes key anti-malware features enabled by default, such as:

1. Secure Boot, which helps prevent early boot malware and rootkits by enforcing signing consistently across Windows boots.
2. Measured Boot, which provides TPM-based hardware cryptographic measurements on boot-time properties available through integrated attestation services such as Device Health Attestation.
3. Memory integrity (also known as hypervisor-protected code integrity or HVCI), which prevents runtime generation of dynamic code in the kernel and helps ensure control flow integrity.
4. Vulnerable driver blocklist, which is on by default, integrated into the OS, and managed by Microsoft. This complements the malicious driver block list.
5. Protected Local Security Authority is on by default in Windows 11 to protect a range of credentials. Hardware-based credential protection is on by default for enterprise versions of Windows.
6. Microsoft Defender Antivirus is enabled by default in Windows and offers anti-malware capabilities across the OS.

These security capabilities provide layers of protection against malware and exploitation attempts in modern Windows. Many Windows customers have leveraged our security baseline and Windows security technologies to harden their systems and these capabilities collectively have reduced the attack surface significantly.

Using the integrated security features of Windows to prevent adversary attacks such as those displayed in the MITRE ATT&CK® framework increases security while reducing cost and complexity. It leverages best practices to achieve maximum security and reliability. These best practices include:

1. Using App Control for Business (formerly Windows Defender Application Control), you can author a security policy to allow only trusted and/or business-critical apps. Your policy can be crafted to deterministically and durably prevent nearly all malware and “living off the land” style attacks. It can also specify which kernel drivers are allowed by your organization to durably guarantee that only those drivers will load on your managed endpoints.
2. Use Memory integrity with a specific allow list policy to further protect the Windows kernel using Virtualization-based security (VBS). Combined with App Control for Business, memory integrity can reduce the attack surface for kernel malware or boot kits. This can also be used to limit any drivers that might impact reliability on systems.
3. Running as Standard User and elevating only as necessary. Companies that follow the best practices to run as standard user and reduce privileges mitigate many of the MITRE ATT&CK® techniques.
4. Use Device Health Attestation (DHA) to monitor devices for the right security policy, including hardware-based measurements for the security posture of the machine. This is a modern and exceptionally durable approach to ensure security for high availability scenarios and uses Microsoft’s Zero Trust architecture.

What is next?

Windows is a self-protecting operating system that has produced dozens of new security features and architectural changes in recent versions. We plan to work with the anti-malware ecosystem to take advantage of these integrated features to modernize their approach, helping to support and even increase security along with reliability.

This includes helping the ecosystem by:

1. Providing safe rollout guidance, best practices, and technologies to make it safer to perform updates to security products.
2. Reducing the need for kernel drivers to access important security data.
3. Providing enhanced isolation and anti-tampering capabilities with technologies like our recently announced VBS enclaves.
4. Enabling zero trust approaches like high integrity attestation which provides a method to determine the security state of the machine based on the health of Windows native security features.

As we move forward, Windows is continuing to innovate and offer new ways for security tools to detect and respond to emerging threats safely and securely. Windows has announced a commitment around the Rust programming language as part of Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative (SFI) and has recently expanded the Windows kernel to support Rust.

The information in this blog post is provided as part of our commitment to communicate learnings and next steps after the CrowdStrike incident. We will continue to share ongoing guidance on security best practices for Windows and work across our broad ecosystem of customers and partners to develop new security capabilities based on your feedback.

The post Windows Security best practices for integrating and managing security tools appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

Today’s threat landscape is unlike any we’ve seen before. Attacks are growing in speed, scale, and sophistication. In 2015, our identity systems were detecting around 115 password attacks per second. Less than a decade later, that number has surged 3,378% to more than 4,000 password attacks per second.¹ This landscape requires stronger and more comprehensive security approaches than ever before, across all devices and technologies we use in our lives both at home and at work.

Cybersecurity at the forefront of all we do

We’ve always had a longstanding commitment to security in Windows. Several years back, when we saw cyberattackers increasingly exploiting hardware, we introduced the Secured-core PC to help secure from chip to cloud and that critical layer of computing.

As we’ve seen identity-based cyberattacks increase at an alarming rate over the years, we’ve expanded our passwordless offerings quickly and broadly. In September 2023, we announced expanded passkey support with cross-device authentication, and have continued to build on that momentum. Earlier this month we announced passkey support for Microsoft consumer accounts and for device-bound passkeys in the Microsoft Authenticator app for iOS and Android users, expanding our support of this industry initiative backed by the FIDO Alliance. Passkeys on Windows are protected by Windows Hello technology that encompasses both Windows Hello and Windows Hello for Business. This latest step builds on nearly a decade of critical work strengthening Windows Hello to give users easier and more secure sign-in options and eliminate points of vulnerability.

Earlier this month we expanded our Secure Future Initiative (SFI), making it clear that we are prioritizing security above all else. SFI, a commitment we shared first in November 2023, prioritizes designing, building, testing, and operating our technology in a way that helps to ensure secure and trustworthy product and service delivery. With these commitments in mind, we’ve not only built new security features into Windows 11, but we’ve also doubled down on security features that will be turned on by default. Our goal remains simple: make it easy to stay safe with Windows. 

Today we are sharing exciting updates that make Windows more secure out of the box, by design and by default.

Windows 11

Create, collaborate, and keep your stuff protected.

Learn more

Modern, secure hardware

We believe security is a team sport. We are working in close partnership with our Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partners to complement OEM security features and deliver more secure devices out of the box.

While Secured-core PCs were once considered specialized devices for those handling sensitive data, now Windows users can benefit from enhanced security and AI on one device. We announced that all Copilot+ PCs will be Secured-core PCs, bringing advanced security to both commercial and consumer devices. In addition to the layers of protection in Windows 11, Secured-core PCs provide advanced firmware safeguards and dynamic root-of-trust measurement to help protect from chip to cloud. 

Microsoft Pluton security processor will be enabled by default on all Copilot+ PCs. Pluton is a chip-to-cloud security technology—designed by Microsoft and built by silicon partners—with Zero Trust principles at the core. It helps protect credentials, identities, personal data, and encryption keys, making it significantly harder to remove, even if a cyberattacker installs malware or has physical possession of the PC.

All Copilot+ PCs will also ship with Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS). This provides more secure biometric sign ins and eliminates the need for a password. ESS provides an additional level of security to biometric data by leveraging specialized hardware and software components, such as virtualization-based security (VBS) and Trusted Platform Module 2.0 to help isolate and protect authentication data and secure the channel on which it is communicated. ESS is also available on other compatible Windows 11 devices.

Stay ahead of evolving threats with Windows

To enhance user security from the start, we’re continuously updating security measures and enabling new defaults within Windows.

Windows 11 is designed with layers of security enabled by default, so you can focus on your work, not your security settings. Out-of-the-box features such as credential safeguards, malware shields, and application protection led to a reported 58% drop in security incidents, including a 3.1 times reduction in firmware attacks. In Windows 11, hardware and software work together to help shrink the attack surface, protect system integrity, and shield valuable data.² 

Credential and identity theft is a prime focus of cyberattackers. Enabling multifactor authentication with Windows Hello, Windows Hello for Business, and passkeys are effective multifactor authentication solutions. But, as more people enable multifactor authentication, cyberattackers are moving away from simple password-based attacks and focusing energy on other types of credential theft. We have been working to make this more difficult with our latest updates:

• Local Security Authority protection: Windows has several critical processes to verify a user’s identity, including the Local Security Authority (LSA). LSA authenticates users and verifies Windows sign ins, handling tokens and credentials, such as passwords, that are used for single sign-on to Microsoft accounts and Microsoft Azure services. LSA protection, previously on by default for all new commercial devices, is now also enabled by default for new consumer devices. For users upgrading where it has not previously been enabled, For new consumer devices and for users upgrading where it has not been enabled, LSA protection will enter into a grace period. LSA protection prevents LSA from loading untrusted code and prevents untrusted processes from accessing LSA memory, offering significant protection against credential theft.³ 
• NT LAN Manager (NTLM) deprecation: Ending the use of NTLM has been a huge ask from our security community as it will strengthen authentication. NTLM is being deprecated, meaning that, while supported, it is no longer under active feature development. We are introducing new features and tools to ease customers’ transitions to stronger authentication protocols.
• Advancing key protection in Windows using VBS: Now available in public preview for Windows Insiders, this feature helps to offer a higher security bar than software isolation, with stronger performance compared to hardware-based solutions, since it is powered by the device’s CPU. While hardware-backed keys offer strong levels of protection, VBS is helpful for services with high security, reliability, and performance requirements.
• Windows Hello hardening: With Windows Hello technology being extended to protect passkeys, if you are using a device without built-in biometrics, Windows Hello has been further hardened by default to use VBS to isolate credentials, protecting from admin-level attacks.

We have also prioritized helping users know what apps and drivers can be trusted to better protect people from phishing attacks and malware. Windows is both creating new inbox capabilities as well as providing more features for the Windows app developer community to help strengthen app security.

• Smart App Control: Now available and on by default on select new systems where it can provide an optimal experience, Smart App Control has been enhanced with AI learning. Using an AI model based on the 78 trillion security signals Microsoft collects each day, this feature can predict if an app is safe. The policy keeps common, known-to-be-safe apps running while unknown, malware-connected apps are blocked. This is incredibly effective protection against malware.
• Trusted Signing: Unsigned apps pose significant risks. In fact, Microsoft research has revealed that a lot of malware comes in the form of unsigned apps. The best way to ensure seamless compatibility with Smart App Control is with signing of your app. Signing contributes to its trustworthiness and helps ensure that an existing “good reputation” will be inherited by future app updates, making it less likely to be blocked inadvertently by threat detection systems. Recently moved into public preview, trusted signing makes this process simpler by managing every aspect of the certificate lifecycle. And it integrates with popular development tooling like Azure DevOps and GitHub.
• Win32 app isolation: A new security feature, currently in preview, Win32 app isolation makes it easier for Windows app developers to contain damage and safeguard user privacy choices in the event of an application compromise. Win32 app isolation is built on the foundation of AppContainers, which offer a security boundary, and components that virtualize resources and provide brokered access to other resources—like printer, registry, and file access. Win32 app isolation is close to general availability thanks to feedback from our developer community. App developers can now use Win32 app isolation with seamless Visual Studio integration.
• Making admin users more secure: Most people run as full admins on their devices, which means apps and services have the same access to the kernel and other critical services as users. And the problem is that these apps and services can access critical resources without the user knowing. This is why Windows is being updated to require just in time administrative access to the kernel and other critical services as needed, not all the time, and certainly not by default. This makes it harder for an app to unexpectedly abuse admin privileges and secretly put malware or malicious code on Windows. When this feature is enabled, such as when an app needs special permissions like admin rights, you’ll be asked for approval. When an approval is needed, Windows Hello provides a secure and easy way to approve or deny these requests, giving you, and only you, full control over your device. Currently in private preview, this will be available in public preview soon. 
• VBS enclaves: Previously available to Windows security features only, VBS enclaves are now available to third-party application developers. This software-based trusted executive environment within a host application’s address space offers deep operating system protection of sensitive workloads, like data decryption. Try the VBS enclave APIs to experience how the enclave is shielded from both other system processes and the host application itself. This results in more security for your sensitive workloads.

As we see cyberattackers come up with new strategies and targets, we continue to harden Windows code to address where bad actors are spending their time and energy.

• Windows Protected Print: In late 2023, we launched Windows Protected Print Mode to build a more modern and secure print system that maximizes compatibility and puts users first. This will be the default print mode in the future.
• Tool tips: In the past, tool tips have been exploited, leading to unauthorized access to memory. In older Windows versions, tool tips were managed as a single window for each desktop, established by the kernel and recycled for displaying any tool tip. We are revamping how tool tips work to be more secure for users. With the updated approach, the responsibility for managing the lifecycle of tool tips has been transferred to the respective application that is being used. Now, the kernel monitors cursor activity and initiates countdowns for the display and concealment of tool tip windows. When these countdowns conclude, the kernel notifies the user-level environment to either generate or eliminate a tool tip window.
• TLS server authentication: TLS (transport layer security) server authentication certificates verify the server’s identity to a client and ensure secure connections. While 1024-bit RSA encryption keys were previously supported, advancements in computing power and cryptanalysis require that Windows no longer trust these weak key lengths by default. As a result, TLS certificates with RSA keys less than 2048 bits chaining to roots in the Microsoft Trusted Root Program will not be trusted.

Lastly, with each Windows release we add more levers for commercial customers to lock down Windows within their environment.

• Config Refresh: Config Refresh allows administrators to set a schedule for devices to reapply policy settings without needing to check in to Microsoft Intune or other mobile device management vendors, helping to ensure settings remain as configured by the IT admin. It can be set to refresh every 90 minutes by default or as frequently as every 30 minutes. There is also an option to pause Config Refresh for a configurable period, useful for troubleshooting or maintenance, after which it will automatically resume or can be manually reactivated by an administrator.
• Firewall: The Firewall Configuration Service Provider (CSP) in Windows now enforces an all-or-nothing application of firewall rules from each atomic block of rules. Previously, if the CSP encountered an issue with applying any rule from a block, the CSP would not only stop that rule, but also would cease to process subsequent rules, leaving a potential security gap with partially deployed rule blocks. Now, if any rule in the block cannot be applied successfully to the device, the CSP will stop processing subsequent rule and all rules from that same atomic block will be rolled back, eliminating the ambiguity of partially deployed rule blocks.
• Personal Data Encryption (PDE): PDE enhances security by encrypting data and only decrypting it when the user unlocks their PC using Windows Hello for Business. PDE enables two levels of data protection. Level 1, where data remains encrypted until the PC is first unlocked; or Level 2, where files are encrypted whenever the PC is locked. PDE complements BitLocker’s volume level protection and provides dual-layer encryption for personal or app data when paired with BitLocker. PDE is in preview now and developers can leverage the PDE API to protect their app content, enabling IT admins to manage protection using their mobile device management solution. 
• Zero Trust DNS: Now in private preview, this feature will natively restrict Windows devices to connect only to approved network destinations by domain name. Outbound IPv4 and IPv6 traffic is blocked and won’t reach the intended destination unless a trusted, protected DNS server resolved it, or an IT admin configures an exception. Plan now to avoid blocking issues by configuring apps and services to use the system DNS resolver.

Explore the new Windows 11 security features

We truly believe that security is a team sport. By partnering with OEMs, app developers and others in the ecosystem—along with helping people to be better at protecting themselves—we are delivering a Windows that is more secure by design and secure by default. The Windows Security Book is available to help you learn more about what makes it easy for users to stay secure with Windows.

Learn more about Windows 11.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

¹Microsoft Password Guidance, Microsoft Identity Protection Team. 2016.

²Windows 11 Survey Report, Techaisle. February 2022.

³Users can manage their LSA protection state in the Windows Security Application under Device Security -> Core Isolation -> Local Security Authority.

The post New Windows 11 features strengthen security to address evolving cyberthreat landscape appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

From more secure and easy-to-use authentication with multifactor authentication to adding extra layers of protection for applications and data, we’ve simplified and enabled more security features by default than ever before with Windows 11. These features are designed to help stop attacks we’re seeing now as well the more sophisticated and targeted attacks that we expect to become more mainstream in the future. We have also begun to adopt memory-safe languages like Rust, starting with using Rust code for two traditional attack targets—Font Parsing and Win32k Kernel.

When we launched Windows 11 it came with new hardware and software features like secure boot, virtualization-based security, hypervisor-protected code integrity, and Windows Hello using the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) on by default in many regions. Since turning those features on, organizations have reported a 58 percent reduction in security incidents, and a three times reduction in firmware attacks—a highly attractive and lucrative target for attackers. Our data shows that 83 percent of Windows 11 devices use three or more security features. 

We’re excited to take the next step on this journey with updates for security and IT professionals available today and on by default for new installs of Windows 11.

New Windows 11 security features

Windows 11 features give you the power to create, collaborate, and keep your stuff protected.

Learn more

The next step towards eliminating passwords entirely

Microsoft global threat intelligence processes more than 65 trillion security signals every day. That intel has shown us there are more than 4,000 password attacks every second.² Everyday cybercriminals as well as nation-state attackers like Peach Sandstorm are leveraging password spray attacks to compromise high-value targets in sectors like satellite, defense, and pharmaceuticals. Organizations can reduce their risk of compromise to these kinds of attacks with Windows passwordless authentication and multifactor authentication features that offer more protection than traditional passwords.

Passkeys make passwordless easier and more universal: Windows 11 will make it much harder for hackers who exploit stolen passwords through phishing attacks by empowering users to replace passwords with passkeys. Passkeys are the cross-platform future of secure sign-in management. Microsoft and other technology leaders are promoting passkeys as part of the FIDO Alliance. A passkey creates a unique, unguessable cryptographic credential that is securely stored on your device. Instead of using a username and password to access a website or application, Windows 11 users will be able to use and protect passkeys using Windows Hello or Windows Hello for Business, or their phone. This will allow users to access the site or app using their face, fingerprint, or device PIN. Passkeys on Windows 11 will work on multiple browsers including Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Firefox, and others. Setting up a passkey in Windows is accomplished by:

• The website or application owner creates a passkey and offers it to you as a sign-in option instead of your password—website and app owners will need to develop their own passkeys infrastructure on their sign-in experience.
• Once you create the passkey on your device, the next time you sign in to that website or app from your device it will recognize that you have its passkey, and you can use it instead of a password. If you are using Windows Hello or Windows Hello for Business, you will be able to use your face, PIN, or fingerprint to sign in more easily. In addition, you can now use a passkey from your phone or tablet to complete the sign-in process.
• Users will have a management dashboard through Settings –> Accounts –> Passkeys to see and manage passkeys on their Windows 11 device.

Simplifying and modernizing security for IT by reducing the attack surface 

The latest Windows 11 will also include powerful new tools that enable IT teams to keep their organizations and employees more secure. We’re improving authentication, making it easier for IT to lock down and maintain policy configurations, adding more controls through Intune.

Phish-resistant credentials with Windows Hello for Business Passwordless: Windows 11 devices with Windows Hello for Business or FIDO2 security keys can protect user identities by removing the need to use passwords from day one. IT can now set a policy for Microsoft Entra ID-joined machines, so users no longer see the option to enter a password when accessing company resources. Once the policy is set, it will remove passwords from the Windows user experience, both for device unlock as well as in-session authentication scenarios. With this change, users can now navigate through their core authentication scenarios using strong, phish-resistant credentials like Windows Hello for Business or FIDO2 security keys. If ever necessary, users can leverage recovery mechanisms such as Windows Hello for Business PIN reset or web sign-in. Web sign-in is now available for all supported Microsoft Entra ID authentication mechanisms in addition to Temporary Access Pass (TAP) and education scenarios.

Maintain IT policy control with Config Refresh: Config Refresh is designed to revert policies to a secured state if they’ve been tampered with by potentially unwanted applications or user tampering with the registry. Config Refresh allows Windows 11 devices to be reset every 90 minutes by default, or every 30 minutes if desired, within the policy configuration service provider (CSP). This capability ensures that your settings are retained in the way IT configured them. The policy CSP covers hundreds of settings that were traditionally set with Group Policy and does so through Mobile Device Management, like Microsoft Intune. To enable help desk technicians to support their teams more efficiently Config Refresh can also be paused by IT administrators for a configurable period of time, after which it will be automatically re-enabled. It can also be turned back on at any time by an IT administrator. Starting today, Config Refresh is available to our Insiders and coming soon to all organizations.

Only allow trusted apps with Custom App Control: Applications are the lifeblood of our digital experiences, but they can also become entry points for attackers. With application control, only approved and trusted apps are allowed onto devices. By controlling unwanted or malicious code from running, application control is a critical part of an overall security strategy. Application control is often cited as one of the most effective means of defending against malware. Organizations using Windows 10 and above use App Control for Business (formerly called Windows Defender Application Control) and its next-generation capabilities to protect their digital estate from malicious code. Organizations using Microsoft Intune to manage their devices are now able to configure App Control for Business in the admin console, including setting up Intune as a managed installer.

New configurations in Windows Firewall: We are excited to announce some enhanced management and capabilities for the built-in Windows Firewall to help IT provide better overall protection. Windows Firewall now supports:

• Application Control for Business (previously known as Windows Defender Application Control) app ID tagging with Windows Firewall rules though Intune. This enables IT to target Windows Firewall rules to specific applications without an absolute file path. 
• The ability to configure network list manager settings to determine when a Microsoft Entra ID (previously known as Azure Active Directory) device is on your on-premises domain subnets so firewall rules can properly apply. The network list manager settings for Windows Firewall can be used for location awareness. 
• There is now better support in settings to configure more granular Windows Firewall logging for domain, private, and public firewall profiles, as well as the ability to specify Windows Firewall inbound and outbound rules for ICMP types and codes.

Our continued investment in security and innovation

Our MORSE team, Microsoft Offensive Research and Security Engineering, has been working hard to ensure security is a critical piece of the software development lifecycle. In the last year, the team has dedicated 1.9 million virtual machine hours and more than 84,000 Azure CPU cores dedicated to proactively fuzzing code. In addition to that, we’ve made nearly 700 improvements in our code just the last few months by strengthening the software development lifecycle with security checks and balances, including new automation and AI to help developers find bugs on their own. The proactive work of this team to continue to improve the integrity of our code both old and new is part of our commitment to ongoing investment and innovation in security. The team has released learnings and tools to the community as well like our open source fuzzing tool, Microsoft OneFuzz.

We’re looking forward to continuing this journey to make Windows more secure from the chip to the cloud with every update.

Learn more

Learn more about Windows 11 security features.

Download our Windows security book.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and Twitter (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.  

¹New security features for Windows 11 will help protect hybrid work, David Weston. April 5, 2022.

²Microsoft Entra expands into Security Service Edge and Azure AD becomes Microsoft Entra ID, Joy Chik. July 11, 2023.

³Microsoft internal data.

The post New security features in Windows 11 protect users and empower IT appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

Microsoft’s IoT security commitments 

While customers are familiar with our approach to Windows PC and server security, many are unaware that Microsoft has taken similar steps to strengthen the security of business-critical systems and the networks that enclose them, including vulnerable and unmanaged IoT and OT endpoints. Microsoft often detects a wide range of threats targeting IoT devices, including sophisticated malware that enables attackers to target compromised devices using botnets³ or compromised routers,⁴ and a malicious form of cryptomining called cryptojacking.⁵ This blog post details Microsoft’s efforts to help partners create IoT solutions with strong security, thereby supporting initiatives outlined in the new National Cybersecurity Strategy and other US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) initiatives.

Developing and deploying software products that are secure by design and default is both a challenging and costly endeavor. According to recent guidance from the CISA, Secure-by-Design requires significant resources to incorporate security functions at each layer of the product development process.⁶ To maximize effectiveness, this approach needs to be integrated into a product’s design from the onset and cannot always be “bolted on” later.

Security by design and default is an enduring priority at Microsoft. In 2021, we committed to investing USD100 billion to advance our security solutions over five years (approximately USD20 billion per year) and today we employ more than 8,000 security professionals.⁷ One result of these investments is Windows 11, our most secure version of Windows yet. At Microsoft, we have a great deal of experience around security by design and default and have strived to implement best practices into our products and programs to assist partners who combine hardware, innovative functionality, online services, and operating systems (OS) to produce and maintain IoT solutions with robust security.

Applying Zero Trust to IoT

Instead of believing everything behind the corporate firewall is safe, the Zero Trust model assumes breach and verifies each request as though it originated from an uncontrolled network. Regardless of where the request originates or what resource it accesses, the Zero Trust model teaches us to “never trust, always verify.” A Zero Trust approach should extend throughout the entire digital estate and serve as an integrated security philosophy and end-to-end strategy.

Microsoft advocates for a Zero Trust approach to IoT security, based on the principle of verifying everything and trusting nothing (see Seven Properties of Highly Secure Devices). Zero Trust is also aligned with the new directives in the US National Cybersecurity Strategy and the requirements of the new US cybersecurity labeling program.

A traditional network security model often doesn’t meet the security or user experience needs of modern organizations, including those that have embraced IoT in their digital transformation strategy. User and device interactions with corporate resources and services now often bypass on-premises, perimeter-based defenses. Organizations need a comprehensive security model that more effectively adapts to the complexity of the modern environment, embraces the mobile workforce, and protects their people, devices, applications, and data wherever they are.

To optimize security and minimize risk for IoT devices, a Zero Trust approach requires:

1. Secure identity with Zero Trust: Identities—whether they represent people, services, or IoT devices—define the Zero Trust control plane. When an identity attempts to access a resource, verify that identity with strong authentication, and ensure access is compliant and typical for that identity. Follow least privilege access principles.
2. Secure endpoints with Zero Trust: Once an identity has been granted access to a resource, data can flow to a variety of different endpoints—from IoT devices to smartphones, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) to partner-managed devices, and on-premises workloads to cloud-hosted servers. This diversity creates a massive attack surface area. Monitor and enforce device health and compliance for secure access.
3. Secure applications with Zero Trust: Applications and APIs provide the interface by which data is consumed. They may be legacy on-premises, lifted and shifted to cloud workloads, or modern software as a service (SaaS) applications. Apply controls and technologies to discover shadow IT, ensure appropriate in-app permissions, gate access based on real-time analytics, monitor for abnormal behavior, control user actions, and validate secure configuration options.
4. Secure data with Zero Trust: Ultimately, security teams are protecting data. Where possible, data should remain safe even if it leaves the devices, apps, infrastructure, and networks the organization controls. Classify, label, and encrypt data, and restrict access based on those attributes.
5. Secure infrastructure with Zero Trust: Infrastructure—whether on-premises servers, cloud-based virtual machines, containers, or micro-services—represents a critical threat vector. Assess for version, configuration, and just-in-time access to harden defense. Use telemetry to detect attacks and anomalies, automatically block and flag risky behavior, and take protective actions.
6. Secure networks with Zero Trust: All data is ultimately accessed over network infrastructure. Networking controls can provide critical controls to enhance visibility and help prevent attackers from moving laterally across the network. Segment networks (and do deeper in-network micro-segmentation) and deploy real-time threat protection, end-to-end encryption, monitoring, and analytics.
7. Visibility, automation, and orchestration with Zero Trust: In our Zero Trust guides, we define the approach to implement an end-to-end Zero Trust methodology across identities, endpoints and devices, data, apps, infrastructure, and networks. These activities increase your visibility, which gives you better data for making trust decisions. With each of these individual areas generating their own relevant alerts, we need an integrated capability to manage the resulting influx of data to better defend against threats and validate trust in a transaction.

Microsoft’s Edge Secured-Core program

At Microsoft, we understand Secure-by-Design and Secure-by-Default are difficult to build and even more challenging to get right. To simplify this process, we created Edge Secured-Core, a Microsoft device certification program that codifies and operationalizes the security tenets such as secure by default and Zero Trust into a clear set of requirements. Edge Secured-Core also provides tooling and assistance to our device ecosystem partners to help them build devices that meet these security requirements. We have further customized those requirements for various platforms that manufacturers use to build devices, including Microsoft-provided operating systems Windows IoT and Microsoft Azure Sphere, and ecosystem-provided operating systems based on Linux. Edge Secured-Core devices from partners including Intel, AAEON, Lenovo, and Asus can be found in the Azure Certified Device Catalog today. 

Windows IoT

Windows IoT is a platform that leverages our long history and investment in Windows security to enable more secure and reliable IoT solutions. Whether you are building devices for industrial usage, healthcare or retail sectors, or other scenarios, Windows IoT provides key capabilities to protect your devices and data from the many prevalent threats in today’s digital landscape. 

Windows IoT capabilities include:

• BitLocker, which encrypts the data stored on the device to prevent unauthorized access.
• Secure Boot, which verifies the integrity of the boot process and prevents malicious code from running.
• Code integrity, which verifies the integrity of operating system files when loaded and enforces device manufacturer policies that dictate the drivers and applications that can be loaded on the device.
• Exploit mitigations, which automatically applies several exploit mitigation techniques to operating system processes and apps (examples include kernel pool protection, data execution protection, and address space layout randomization).
• Device attestation, which proves the identity and health of the device to cloud services.

Windows IoT also offers end-to-end management and updates using the trusted Windows infrastructure, ensuring consistent and timely delivery of security patches and feature enhancements. Some versions of Windows IoT support a 10-year servicing term, allowing partners to receive updates and maintain application compatibility, reducing the risk of obsolescence and vulnerability. 

Another benefit of Windows IoT is the flexibility to run containerized workflows, including Linux, on the same device. This allows partners to use existing skills and tools, thereby optimizing performance and resource utilization. Containers provide isolation and portability, enhancing the security and reliability of applications.

Defending against threats with Microsoft Azure Sphere

Microsoft Azure Sphere is a fully managed, integrated hardware, operating system, and cloud platform solution for medium- and low-power IoT devices. It offers a comprehensive approach to secure IoT devices from chip to cloud. 

Azure Sphere devices combine a low-power Arm Cortex-A processor running a custom Linux-based operating system serviced by Microsoft with Arm Cortex-M processors for real-time processing and control. Device manufacturers can develop, deploy, and update their applications, while Microsoft independently provides operating system security updates and device monitoring. Additionally, Azure Sphere devices embed the Microsoft Pluton security architecture, providing a hardware-based root of trust and cryptographic engine. Pluton protects the device identity, keys, and firmware from physical and software attacks and enables secure boot and remote attestation. 

Azure Sphere provides deep defense by employing multiple layers of protection to mitigate the impact of potential vulnerabilities, such as secure boot, kernel hardening, and a per-application network firewall. Azure Sphere devices communicate with a dedicated cloud service, the Azure Sphere Security Service, which attests the device is running expected and up-to-date software, performs both operating system and application updates, provides error reporting, and retrieves a Microsoft signed certificate that is renewed daily.

Similar to Windows IoT, Azure Sphere also offers a 10-year term for security fixes and operating system updates for all devices, as well as an application compatibility promise that ensures existing applications will continue to run on future operating system versions. Also, supporting CISA’s secure-by-design recommendations, Azure Sphere has started enabling embedded development using Rust, a coding language designed to improve memory safety and reduce mistakes during development.⁸

Enhancing security on Linux devices

While Microsoft directly provides operating system updates for Windows IoT and Azure Sphere, Edge Secured-core provides a way of ensuring the same security tenets of secure-by-design and default principles are applicable for devices that use ecosystem-provided distributions of the Linux OS. We collaborate with Linux partner companies to ensure their distributions meet security requirements such as committing to security updates for at least five years, building in support for Secure boot, etc. Microsoft incorporates security checks to onboard operating system partners and ongoing monitoring using Microsoft security agents on these devices, thus providing confidence to customers.

Secure your IoT devices with Microsoft Defender for IoT

Next to consumers, organizations are investing in automation and smart technology to streamline operations, cyber-physical systems, once completely isolated from the network, are now converging with mainstream IT infrastructure. Microsoft Defender for IoT is a security solution that enables organizations to implement Zero Trust principles across enterprise IoT and OT devices to minimize risk and protect these mission-critical systems from threats, as their attack surface expands.⁹

Defender for IoT empowers analysts to discover, manage, and secure enterprise IoT and OT devices in their environment. With network layer monitoring, analysts get a full view of their IoT and OT device estate as well as valuable insights into device-specific details and behaviors. These insights in tandem with generated alerts help analysts protect their environment by easily identifying and prioritizing risks like unpatched systems, vulnerabilities, and anomalous behavior all from a centralized user experience.

Support for the broader IoT ecosystem

Beyond these core platforms, Microsoft provides additional programs and services to enable partners to create more secure IoT devices. For example, due to the wide range of possible configurations and hardware platforms, operating systems such as Azure RTOS place the responsibility of security more heavily on the device manufacturer. SDKs and services like Device Update for Microsoft Azure IoT Hub allow partners to add support for over-the-air software updates to their products.

Microsoft Security supports the US National Cybersecurity Strategy

Microsoft remains committed to supporting the US National Cybersecurity Strategy and helping partners effectively deliver and maintain more secure IoT solutions using powerful technology, tools, and programs designed to improve security outcomes. It is vitally important that partners focus on IoT security by prioritizing security through smart design and development practices and carefully selecting platforms and security defaults that are secure as possible to lower the cost of maintaining the security of products.

Learn more

Learn more about Microsoft Defender for IoT.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and Twitter (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

¹United States National Cybersecurity Strategy, The White House. March 2023.

²Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces Cybersecurity Labeling Program for Smart Devices to Protect American Consumers, The White House. July 13, 2023.

³Microsoft research uncovers new Zerobot capabilities, Microsoft Threat Intelligence. December 21, 2022.

⁴Uncovering Trickbot’s use of IoT devices in command-and-control infrastructure, Microsoft Threat Intelligence. March 16, 2022.

⁵IoT devices and Linux-based systems targeted by OpenSSH trojan campaign, Microsoft Threat Intelligence. June 23, 2023.

⁶Shifting the Balance of Cybersecurity Risk: Principles and Approaches for Security-by-Design and -Default, CISA. April 13, 2023.

⁷Satya Nadella on Twitter. August 25, 2021.

⁸Modernizing embedded development on Azure Sphere with Rust, Akshatha Udayashankar. January 11, 2023.

⁹Learn how Microsoft strengthens IoT and OT security with Zero Trust, Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk. November 8, 2021.

The post Adopting guidance from the US National Cybersecurity Strategy to secure the Internet of Things appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

“Because Microsoft designed the security model of Windows 11 from the ground up to assume that some component has already been compromised, threat actors will find it orders of magnitude more difficult to remain undetected [and persist] in the environment than in traditional architectures.”

–SANS Institute

Protection that evolves with the threat landscape

Today, we’re proud to announce that the security features you heard about in April 2022 are now available on Windows 11.

Application Control

We’ve added features that give people the flexibility to choose their own applications, while still maintaining tight security. Smart App Control is a new feature for individuals or small businesses designed to help prevent scripting attacks and protect users from running untrusted or unsigned applications often associated with malware or attack tools.³ This feature creates an AI model using intelligence, based on the 43 trillion security signals gathered daily, to predict if an app is safe. App control is known to be one of the most effective approaches to protecting against malware but can be complex to deploy. Windows 11 uses the power of AI to generate a continually updated app control policy that allows common and known safe apps to run while blocking unknown apps often associated with new malware. Our customers have asked us to make this simpler and we have responded.

The Smart App Control approach achieves the goal of making advanced app control protection widely available. Smart App Control is built on the same same OS core capabilities used in Windows Defender Application Control. Smart App Control is provided on all Windows client editions with clean installations of Windows 11 2022 Update. Alternatively, for enterprises, your IT team can use Microsoft Intune with Windows Defender Application Control to remotely apply policies to control what apps run on workplace devices.

Vulnerable driver protection

Malware increasingly targets drivers to exploit vulnerabilities, disable security agents, and compromise systems. Window 11 uses virtualization-based security (VBS) for enhanced kernel protection against potential threats.

• Hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI), also called memory integrity, will be enabled by default on all new Windows 11 devices. HVCI uses VBS to run kernel mode code integrity (KMCI) inside the secure VBS environment instead of the main Windows kernel. This helps prevent attacks that attempt to modify kernel mode code such as drivers. The KMCI role is to check that all kernel code is properly signed and hasn’t been tampered with before it is allowed to run.

HVCI ensures that only validated code can be executed in kernel mode. The hypervisor leverages processor virtualization extensions to enforce memory protections that prevent kernel-mode software from executing code that has not been first validated by the code integrity subsystem. HVCI protects against common attacks like WannaCry that rely on the ability to inject malicious code into the kernel. HVCI can help prevent the injection of malicious kernel-mode code even when drivers and other kernel-mode software have bugs.

• The Microsoft vulnerable driver block list is another important safeguard against advanced persistent threats and ransomware attacks that exploit known vulnerable drivers. Beginning with the 2022 Update, the block policy is now on by default for all new Windows computers, and users can opt in to enforce the policy from the Windows Security app.

The Windows kernel is the most privileged software and is therefore a compelling target for malware authors. Since Windows has strict requirements for code running in the kernel, cybercriminals commonly exploit vulnerabilities in kernel drivers to get access. Taking advantage of Windows Defender Application Control, the kernel blocklisting feature prevents vulnerable versions of drivers from running. Microsoft works with ecosystem partners to constantly identify and respond to potentially vulnerable kernel drivers. Users who want the highest level of protection can still specify an allow list to implement driver control.

Enhanced identity protection and simplified password management

With Windows 11, you can protect your valuable data and enable secure hybrid work with the latest advanced security that small or medium-sized businesses say results in 2.8 times fewer instances of identity theft.⁵ Here are a few enhancements that can help you stay secure now and in the future:

• Windows Defender Credential Guard is enabled by default with Windows 11 Enterprise. Credential Guard uses hardware-backed, virtualization security to help protect against credential theft techniques such as pass-the-hash or pass-the-ticket. In addition, this feature helps prevent malware from accessing system secrets even if the process is running with admin privileges.
• Credential isolation with Local Security Authority (LSA) protection enabled by default provides extra protection to new, enterprise-joined Windows 11 devices. LSA is one of the critical processes that verify a user’s identity. With LSA protection, Windows will load only trusted, signed code, making it significantly more difficult for attackers to steal credentials.
• Enhanced phishing protection in Microsoft Defender Smartscreen can detect and warn you when you’re entering your password into a known compromised app or website. It also promotes good credential hygiene by warning users when they try to re-use passwords or store them in an unsafe location such as a text file. This goes beyond browser-based protection to build advanced phishing protection into the operating system itself, empowering users to take proactive action before passwords can be used against them or their organization. IT admins can customize alerts using a mobile device management (MDM) solution like Microsoft Intune.⁴
• Go Passwordless with Windows Hello for Business. With built-in protection already enabled, Windows 11 helps block software and firmware attack from the moment you turn on your device. And for secure, convenient single sign-on (SSO), you can take advantage of the protection and convenience of passwordless authentication using Windows Hello for Business and a unique identifier such as your face, fingerprint, or PIN. These unique identifiers are bound to your device and can only be used by you from that device for secure, convenient SSO across your computer and cloud services.
• We’ve also made Windows Hello for Business much easier to deploy. For example, we’ve removed requirements for public key infrastructure (PKI). Look into this deployment model for an easy, secure way to set up a modern, passwordless sign-in experience.
• And if you’re going passwordless, you’ll be able to take advantage of presence sensing for hands-free secure sign-in. Presence detection sensors work with Windows Hello to sign you in when you approach, and lock when you leave.⁵ The feature is optional and can be easily enabled on devices equipped with presence sensors.

Locking down IT policy and compliance

• Config lock, available only on Secured-core PCs that are designed for added security, helps prevent the configuration drift that occurs when users with local admin rights change settings and put devices out-of-sync with IT security policies. With config lock, Windows 11 monitors the registry keys that configure each feature even when the device isn’t connected to the internet. When a drift is detected, the device immediately reverts to the IT-desired Secured-core computer state.

Config lock builds on the security fundamentals of Windows 11 and is, in part, secured by specific hardware features. The feature monitors a pre-configured set of configuration service providers (CSPs) and policies. If you assign any of these policies to devices in your tenant, enabling config lock will maintain your defined settings.

Ongoing innovation to improve security for all

We’re continuing to add protection from chip to cloud, with an emphasis on the benefits of using new, modern devices with hardware features optimized for security and hybrid work.

For example, if you work in data-sensitive scenarios, Secured-core PCs with Windows 11 can be a great choice. These devices come with additional safeguards enabled, including advanced firmware protection, for the highest level of Windows security. We also will now detect if a device is capable of Windows Defender System Guard and alert users in the Windows Security app that the feature can be enabled. This update to the Windows Security app is currently available to the Windows Insider population and will be broadly available soon.

The Microsoft Pluton security processor, designed by Microsoft and our silicon partners, directly integrates into the silicon of the CPU, providing protection for sensitive assets like credentials and encryption keys by isolating them from the rest of the system. The Pluton firmware also gets security updates straight from the cloud through the Windows updates process which helps security and IT teams simplify management and ensure they have the latest, ongoing protection against threats. 

We’re all working together toward a more secure future, and we look forward to delivering more innovation that will not only detect threats but help prevent them. Microsoft has committed a USD20 billion investment in security research and development over five years.⁴ We’re committed to your security and to continuously improving the foundational security provided by Windows with default security baselines to help you thrive now and in the future.

To get more information on Windows 11 chip-to-cloud security, visit our website and check out the Windows 11 Security Book details on how Microsoft optimizes Windows 11 for Zero Trust.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

¹Cyber Signals: 3 strategies for protection against ransomware, Vasu Jakkal. August 30, 2022.

²MORSE security team takes proactive approach to finding bugs, Elliott Smith. August 3, 2022.

³Availability may vary by region.

⁴Microsoft has a $20 billion hacking plan, but cybersecurity has a big spending problem, Eric Rosenbaum. September 8, 2021.

⁵Hardware dependent.

The post New Windows 11 security features are designed for hybrid work appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

In 2021, protections built into Windows, Azure, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 have blocked more than 9.6 billion malware threats, more than 35.7 billion phishing and other malicious emails, and 25.6 billion attempts to hijack our enterprise customers by brute-forcing stolen passwords—that’s more than 800 password attacks per second. The intelligence we get from this, combined with the 8,500 security professionals we have and 24 trillion security signals processed by our cloud every 24 hours, gives us a unique view into what our customers need to protect themselves from threats now and in the future. The combination of modern hardware and software required for Windows 11, delivered alongside our ecosystem partners, is what will enable us to help protect our customers from wherever and however they choose to work.

Security designed for hybrid work

In a future release of Windows 11, you’re going to see significant security updates that add even more protection from the chip to the cloud by combining modern hardware and software. Microsoft has made groundbreaking investments to help secure our Windows customers with hardware security innovations like Secured-core PCs. Our data shows that these devices are 60 percent more resilient to malware than PCs that don’t meet the Secured-core specifications. The stronger protection these devices provide helped build the foundation that the Windows 11 hardware baselines were designed upon. In upcoming releases of Windows, we are advancing security even further with built-in protections to help defend from advanced and targeted phishing attacks. We’re also adding more protection for your applications, personal data, and devices and empowering IT with the ability to lock security configurations as more enterprise devices are sent directly to users. Here’s a look at what’s coming to Windows 11 to help our customers combat the biggest security challenges of distributed work scenarios and the threat landscape of the future.

Zero Trust security, from the chip to the cloud, rooted in hardware

• Microsoft Pluton: Built on the principles of Zero Trust, the hardware and silicon-assisted security features in Windows 11—including the TPM 2.0, firmware and identity protection, Direct Memory Access, and Memory Integrity protection—help protect core parts of the OS as well the user’s credentials as soon as the device powers on. While those features provide protection from many attack patterns we see today, we know that attackers have shifted their sights to hardware which is why we’re looking ahead to the Microsoft Pluton Security Processor as an innovative solution to securing that critical layer of computing.
• Microsoft Pluton has several key capabilities that stem from its direct integration into the CPU and the OS. First, Pluton is the only security processor which is kept regularly up to date with key security and functionality updates coming through Windows Update just like any other Windows component. This means that Pluton does not require enterprises to take the traditional manual steps to update firmware, making it much easier to stay secure. In addition, the Pluton firmware is developed by the same Windows team that builds the features that use it, like Windows Hello and Bitlocker. This means Pluton is optimized for the best performance and reliability in Windows 11. Pluton also undergoes world-class penetration testing along with external bug bounties to ensure it remains secure. Pluton offers more than just optimized firmware, it also offers protection against physical attacks through its direct integration into the CPU. This avoids any additional attack surface, increasing security and simplifying additional configuration traditionally needed to address physical attacks. Pluton is a testament to the investment in our chip to the cloud security strategy and the success of Secured-core PCs.

App security without the app store from Smart App Control 

• Smart App Control is a major enhancement to the Windows 11 security model that prevents users from running malicious applications on Windows devices that default blocks untrusted or unsigned applications. Smart App Control goes beyond previous built-in browser protections and is woven directly into the core of the OS at the process level. Using code signing along with AI, our new Smart App Control only allows processes to run that are predicted to be safe based on either code certificates or an AI model for application trust within the Microsoft cloud. Model inference occurs 24 hours a day on the latest threat intelligence that provides trillions of signals. When a new application is run on Windows 11, its core signing and core features are checked against this model, ensuring only known safe applications are allowed to run. This means Windows 11 users can be confident they are using only safe and reliable applications on their new Windows devices. Smart App Control will ship on new devices with Windows 11 installed. Devices running previous versions of Windows 11 will have to be reset and have a clean installation of Windows 11 to take advantage of this feature. 

Increased account and credential security

• Enhanced phishing detection and protection with Microsoft Defender SmartScreen: In the last year, we’ve blocked more than 25.6 billion Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) brute force authentication attacks and intercepted 35.7 billion phishing emails with Microsoft Defender for Office 365. The enhanced phishing detection and protection built into Windows with Microsoft Defender SmartScreen will help protect users from phishing attacks by identifying and alerting users when they are entering their Microsoft credentials into a malicious application or hacked website. These enhancements will make Windows the world’s first operating system with phishing safeguards built directly into the platform and shipped out-of-box to help users stay productive and secure without having to learn to be their own IT department.

• Credential Guard by default: Windows 11 makes use of hardware-backed, virtualization-based security capabilities to help protect systems from credential theft attack techniques like pass-the-hash or pass-the-ticket. It also helps prevent malware from accessing system secrets even if the process is running with admin privileges. In the future, Credential Guard will be enabled by default for organizations using the Enterprise edition of Windows 11. 

• Additional protection for Local Security Authority (LSA) by default: Windows has several critical processes to verify a user’s identity. The LSA is one of those processes, responsible for authenticating users and verifying Windows logins. It is responsible for handling user credentials, like passwords, and tokens used to provide single sign-on to Microsoft accounts and Azure services. Attackers have developed tools and have abused Microsoft tools to take advantage of this process to steal credentials. To combat this, additional LSA protection will be enabled by default in the future for new, enterprise-joined Windows 11 devices making it significantly more difficult for attackers to steal credentials by ensuring LSA loads only trusted, signed code.

Personal Data Encryption adds a second layer of security for personal data

• Forty percent of respondents in Verizon’s 2021 Mobile Security Index said mobile devices are the biggest IT security threat, 97 percent consider remote workers to be at more risk than office workers, and 56 percent were worried about device loss or theft. No matter where users are working, the new Personal Data Encryption coming to Windows 11 provides a platform, available for use by applications and IT, to protect user files and data when the user is not signed into the device. To access the data, the user must first authenticate with Windows Hello for Business, linking data encryption keys with the user’s passwordless credentials so that even if a device is lost or stolen, data is more resistant to attack and sensitive data has another layer of protection built-in.

Protect users from themselves with Config Lock

• More than 60 percent of security decision-makers reported that they’re challenged when it comes to implementing security solutions and a big reason for that is the limited control they have once the device is in the hands of the user. Config Lock changes that. This feature, already in Windows 11, monitors registry keys through mobile device management (MDM) policies to help ensure devices in your ecosystem comply with industrial and company security baselines. If Config Lock detects a change in registry keys, it will automatically revert the impacted system to the IT-desired state in seconds. With Config Lock, IT administrators can be confident that devices in their organization are protected, and users have not changed critical security settings.

Block vulnerable drivers by default with HVCI

• Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity (HVCI) default enhancements: Malware attacks over the last few years (RobbinHood, Uroburos, Derusbi, GrayFish, and Sauron)² have increasingly leveraged driver vulnerabilities to compromise systems. In the next Windows 11 release, HVCI will be enabled by default on a broader set of devices running Windows 11. This feature prevents attackers from injecting their own malicious code (for example, WannaCry)³ and helps ensure that all drivers loaded onto the OS are signed and trustworthy. Using data from the broader security community, the Microsoft Vulnerable and Malicious Driver Reporting Center helps enable Windows to automatically block known vulnerable drivers.
• The Microsoft vulnerable driver blocklist leverages Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) to help prevent advanced persistent threats (APTs) and ransomware attacks abusing and exploiting known vulnerable drivers. The kernel blocklisting feature mitigates these threats by preventing these drivers from being exploited by blocking their load in the Windows kernel. Devices running HVCI or Windows SE have the blocklist enabled by default. Additionally, the feature can be enabled by the new experience in the Core isolation page within the Windows Security App.

Redesigning security from the chip to the cloud

Microsoft is continuously investing in improving the default security baseline for Windows and is focused on closing gaps on top attack vectors like those we shared here today. Those investments are designed to help simplify and deepen the security experience for Windows customers by default. With built-in chip to the cloud protection and layers of security, Windows 11 helps organizations meet the new security challenges of the hybrid workplace, now and in the future. With every release, we are making Windows more secure by default, designing new protections as we continue to power the future of business.

Check out our breakout security session to see how these upcoming Windows Security features help protect you from real-world attacks. And learn more about Windows 11 security in our Windows 11 Security Book.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

¹The Work Trend Index survey was conducted by an independent research firm, Edelman Data x Intelligence, among 31,102 full-time employed or self-employed workers across 31 markets between January 7, 2022 and February 16, 2022. Business leaders were asked, “When you think ahead to the next year, what are the biggest obstacles or challenges you’re most worried about?” Cyber security challenges ranked number one; meeting increased customer demands/needs and navigating external factors like supply chain disruptions and inflation ranked two and three.

²Secured-core PCs: A brief showcase of chip-to-cloud security against kernel attacks, Windows Platform Security Team, Microsoft Security. March 17, 2020.

³A worthy upgrade: Next-gen security on Windows 10 proves resilient against ransomware outbreaks in 2017, Tanmay Ganacharya, Microsoft Security. January 10, 2018.

The post New security features for Windows 11 will help protect hybrid work appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

But as attacks have increased in scope and sophistication, so have we. Microsoft has a clear vision for how to help protect our customers now and in the future and we know our approach works.

Today, we are announcing Windows 11 to raise security baselines with new hardware security requirements built-in that will give our customers the confidence that they are even more protected from the chip to the cloud on certified devices. Windows 11 is redesigned for hybrid work and security with built-in hardware-based isolation, proven encryption, and our strongest protection against malware.

Security by design: Built-in and turned on

Security by design has long been a priority at Microsoft. What other companies invest more than $1 billion a year on security and employ more than 3,500 dedicated security professionals?

We’ve made significant strides in that journey to create chip-to-cloud Zero Trust out of the box. In 2019, we announced secured-core PCs that apply security best-practices to the firmware layer, or device core, that underpins Windows. These devices combine hardware, software, and OS protections to help provide end-to-end safeguards against sophisticated and emerging threats like those against hardware and firmware that are on the rise according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology as well as the Department of Homeland Security. Our Security Signals report found that 83 percent of businesses experienced a firmware attack, and only 29 percent are allocating resources to protect this critical layer.

With Windows 11, we’re making it easier for customers to get protection from these advanced attacks out of the box. All certified Windows 11 systems will come with a TPM 2.0 chip to help ensure customers benefit from security backed by a hardware root-of-trust.

The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a chip that is either integrated into your PC’s motherboard or added separately into the CPU. Its purpose is to help protect encryption keys, user credentials, and other sensitive data behind a hardware barrier so that malware and attackers can’t access or tamper with that data.

PCs of the future need this modern hardware root-of-trust to help protect from both common and sophisticated attacks like ransomware and more sophisticated attacks from nation-states. Requiring the TPM 2.0 elevates the standard for hardware security by requiring that built-in root-of-trust.

TPM 2.0 is a critical building block for providing security with Windows Hello and BitLocker to help customers better protect their identities and data. In addition, for many enterprise customers, TPMs help facilitate Zero Trust security by providing a secure element for attesting to the health of devices.

Windows 11 also has out of the box support for Azure-based Microsoft Azure Attestation (MAA) bringing hardware-based Zero Trust to the forefront of security, allowing customers to enforce Zero Trust policies when accessing sensitive resources in the cloud with supported mobile device managements (MDMs) like Intune or on-premises.

• Raising the security baseline to meet the evolving threat landscape. This next generation of Windows will raise the security baseline by requiring more modern CPUs, with protections like virtualization-based security (VBS), hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI), and Secure Boot built-in and enabled by default to protect from both common malware, ransomware, and more sophisticated attacks. Windows 11 will also come with new security innovations like hardware-enforced stack protection for supported Intel and AMD hardware, helping to proactively protect our customers from zero-day exploits. Innovation like the Microsoft Pluton security processor, when used by the great partners in the Windows ecosystem, help raise the strength of the fundamentals at the heart of robust Zero Trust security.
• Ditch passwords with Windows Hello to help keep your information protected. For enterprises, Windows Hello for Business supports simplified passwordless deployment models for achieving a deploy-to-run state within a few minutes. This includes granular control of authentication methods by IT admins while securing communication between cloud tools to better protect corporate data and identity. And for consumers, new Windows 11 devices will be passwordless by default from day one.
• Security and productivity in one. All these components work together in the background to help keep users safe without sacrificing quality, performance, or experience. The new set of hardware security requirements that comes with this new release of Windows is designed to build a foundation that is even stronger and more resistant to attacks on certified devices. We know this approach works—secured-core PCs are twice as resistant to malware infection.
• Comprehensive security and compliance. Out of the box support for Microsoft Azure Attestation enables Windows 11 to provide evidence of trust via attestation, which forms the basis of compliance policies organizations can depend upon to develop an understanding of their true security posture. These Azure Attestation-backed compliance policies validate both the identity, as well as the platform, and form the backbone for the Zero Trust and Conditional Access workflows for safeguarding corporate resources.

This next level of hardware security is compatible with upcoming Pluton-equipped systems and also any device using the TPM 2.0 security chip, including hundreds of devices available from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Panasonic, and many others.

Windows 11 is a smarter way for everyone to collaborate, share, and present—with the confidence of hardware-backed protections.

Learn more

For more information, check out the other features that come with Windows 11:

• Windows 11 for Business
• Windows 11 for Enterprise

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

The post Windows 11 enables security by design from the chip to the cloud appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

At the same time, we have also seen growth in the number of attacks against firmware where sensitive information like credentials and encryption keys are stored in memory. A recent survey commissioned by Microsoft of 1,000 security decision-makers found that 83 percent had experienced some level of firmware security incident, but only 29 percent are allocating resources to protect that critical layer. And according to March 2021 data from the National Vulnerability Database included in a presentation from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) at the 2021 RSA, difficult-to-patch firmware attacks are continuing to rise. Microsoft’s Azure Defender for IoT team (formerly CyberX) recently announced alongside the Department of Homeland Security a series of more than 25 critical severity vulnerabilities in IoT and OT devices

The challenge in securing these devices starts with securing the supply chain. Device builders typically integrate third-party software and components in their solution, but they are missing the tools and the expertise in analyzing the components they consume and as a result may unknowingly ship devices with security vulnerabilities.

This is where ReFirm Labs comes in. Microsoft believes that firmware is not a future threat, but an imperative to secure now as more devices flood the market and expand the available attack surface. We are committed to helping customers protect from these sophisticated threats now and in the future, which is why we’re announcing that we have acquired ReFirm Labs.

Microsoft will enhance chip-to-cloud protection with ReFirm Labs

We are excited to announce that ReFirm Labs is joining Microsoft to enrich our firmware analysis and security capabilities across devices that form the intelligent edge, from servers to IoT. The addition of ReFirm Labs to Microsoft will bring both world-class expertise in firmware security and the Centrifuge firmware platform to enhance our ability to analyze and help protect firmware backed by the power and speed of our cloud.

ReFirm are the authors of the well-respected Binwalk open-source software, which has been used to analyze thousands of device types for firmware security issues, uncovering unpatched common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs), insecure secrets, and a multitude of other security problems in plugin IoT devices and embedded firmware. ReFirm’s firmware analysis technology will advance Microsoft’s existing capabilities to help secure IoT and OT devices via Azure Defender for IoT which was recently enhanced with technology from our acquisition of CyberX. Together, we will provide device builders and customers the ability to both discover, protect, and assess device risk both at the firmware and network level and then patch devices with an easy-to-use cloud-based solution as is explained in this video.

Microsoft has already taken steps to bring the power of the cloud to help secure and eliminate gaps between hardware and software with the announcement of Secured-core PCs, the creation of the Pluton security processor with our partners, and most recently the extension of secured-core to servers and edge devices. This acquisition marks the next step in our journey and ability to help secure customers from the chip to the cloud, backed by more than 3,500 defenders at Microsoft and the >8 trillion security signals we process every day.

We are thrilled to take this next step with ReFirm Labs to proactively address what is already becoming the next big attack surface, firmware. Together, will continue to provide innovation and value to our customers by helping them discover, monitor, and update all of their network-connected devices. The technology and expertise that ReFirm brings will be an incredible addition to Microsoft and help us continue to deliver on our commitment to protecting from the chip to the cloud.

Learn more

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

The post Microsoft acquires ReFirm Labs to enhance IoT security appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.