

Prevalence of the exploit vs macro attack vector observed via Windows Defender ATP telemetry Malicious macros have since showed up in commodity malware campaigns, targeted attacks, and in red-team activities.įigure 1. Microsoft, along with the rest of the industry, observed attackers transition from exploits to using malicious macros to infect endpoints. Continuous improvements in platform and application security have led to the decline of software exploits, and attackers have found a viable alternative infection vector in social engineering attacks that abuse functionalities like VBA macros. Macro-based threats have always been a prevalent entry point for malware, but we have observed a resurgence in recent years. Endpoint management Endpoint managementĪs part of our continued efforts to tackle entire classes of threats, Office 365 client applications now integrate with Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI), enabling antivirus and other security solutions to scan macros and other scripts at runtime to check for malicious behavior.Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management.Microsoft Purview Information Protection.

Information protection Information protection.Microsoft Priva Subject Rights Requests.Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance.Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management.Risk management & privacy Risk management & privacy.Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management.Microsoft Defender Cloud Security Posture Mgmt.Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management.Azure Active Directory part of Microsoft Entra.
