Security News > 2021 > March > Microsoft Exchange Servers Face APT Attack Tsunami

Recently patched Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities are under fire from at least 10 different advanced persistent threat groups, all bent on compromising email servers around the world.

Microsoft said in early March that it had spotted multiple zero-day exploits in the wild being used to attack on-premises versions of Microsoft Exchange Server.

This activity was quickly followed by a raft of other groups, including CactusPete and Mikroceen "Scanning and compromising Exchange servers en masse," according to ESET. "We have already detected webshells on more than 5,000 email servers as of the time of writing, and according to public sources, several important organizations, such as the European Banking Authority, suffered from this attack," according to the ESET report.

After the patches rolled out and the vulnerabilities were publicly disclosed, CactusPete compromised the email servers of an Eastern Europe-based procurement company and a cybersecurity consulting company, ESET noted.

The Mikroceen APT group compromised the Exchange server of a utility company in Central Asia, which is the region it mainly targets, a day after the patches were released.

Organizations with on-premise Microsoft Exchange servers should patch as soon as possible, researchers noted - if it's not already too late.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/microsoft-exchange-servers-apt-attack/164695/