How Attackers Stay Hidden Inside Your Azure Cloud

How Attackers Stay Hidden Inside Your Azure Cloud

In this episode, Ashish sits down with Christian Philipov, Principal Security Consultant at WithSecure, to explore the stealth tactics threat actors are using in Azure and why many of these go undetected.

Christian breaks down the lesser-known APIs like Ibiza and PIM, how Microsoft Graph differs from legacy APIs, and what this means for defenders.

  • The 3 common ways attackers stay stealthy in Azure
  • Why read-only enumeration activity often isn’t logged
  • What detection is possible and how to improve it
  • How conditional access and logging configuration can help defenders
  • Why understanding Microsoft Graph matters for security ops


Guest Socials: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Christian's Linkedin

Podcast Twitter - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CloudSecPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

If you want to watch videos of this LIVE STREAMED episode and past episodes - Check out our other Cloud Security Social Channels:

-⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Cloud Security Podcast- Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Cloud Security Newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Cloud Security BootCamp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

If you are interested in AI Cybersecurity, you can check out our sister podcast -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ AI Cybersecurity Podcast


Questions asked:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:09) A bit about Christian

(02:39) What is considered stealthy in Azure?

(04:39) Which services are stealthy in Azure?

(06:25) PIM and Ibiza API

(12:53) The role of Defender for Cloud

(18:04) Does the Stealthy API approach scale?

(19:26) Preventing Stealthy API attacks

(21:49) Best Practices for Prevention in Azure

(25:47) Behaviour Analysis in Azure

(29:31) The Fun Section


Resources spoken about during the interview:

Christian's fwd:cloudsec talk - Staying Sneaky in Microsoft Azure

Christian's Disobey Talk

Jaksot(346)

Using AI to Fix Your Cloud Security Backlog beyond Visibility

Using AI to Fix Your Cloud Security Backlog beyond Visibility

You have the visibility, you see the alerts, but your security backlog is still growing faster than your team can fix it. So, are you actually getting more secure? In this episode, Snir Ben Shimol, CE...

9 Syys 202548min

Your SecOps Team Can't Save Your Cloud: A New Blueprint for Security.

Your SecOps Team Can't Save Your Cloud: A New Blueprint for Security.

The conversation around cloud security is maturing beyond simple threat detection. As the industry grapples with alert fatigue, we explore the necessary shift from a reactive to a proactive security p...

27 Elo 202547min

New Identity Blueprint for a Future with Cloud & AI

New Identity Blueprint for a Future with Cloud & AI

Identity is the root cause of over 70% of all security incidents, yet many organizations still rely on fundamentally flawed authentication methods. In this episode, Jasson Casey, CEO and co-founder of...

22 Elo 202549min

AI for SOC Automation: A Blueprint for the New world of Incident Response

AI for SOC Automation: A Blueprint for the New world of Incident Response

The nature of Security Operations is changing. As cloud environments grow in complexity and data volumes explode, traditional approaches to detection and response are proving insufficient. This episod...

8 Elo 202552min

The Truth About Agentic AI in the SOC: Reality vs. Hype

The Truth About Agentic AI in the SOC: Reality vs. Hype

What does the integration of AI into a Security Operations Center (SOC) practically look like? This episode explores the concept of the "Agentic SOC," moving beyond marketing terms to discuss its real...

7 Elo 202552min

Understanding a $10B Fraud Vector in Cloud-Native Workflows

Understanding a $10B Fraud Vector in Cloud-Native Workflows

A $10 billion fraud vector is currently exploiting a common feature in many cloud-native applications: the SMS verification flow. This isn't a traditional breach. Instead of stealing data, adversaries...

22 Heinä 202544min

How BT Tackled 180 Years of Legacy to Build a Passwordless Future

How BT Tackled 180 Years of Legacy to Build a Passwordless Future

How do you modernize security in a 180-year-old company that operates critical national infrastructure? What does it look like when you discover tens or even hundreds of thousands of credentials hidde...

17 Heinä 202519min

Why Security Can Be Stricter: A Zero Trust Approach to AppSec with AI

Why Security Can Be Stricter: A Zero Trust Approach to AppSec with AI

Is AI making application security easier or harder? We spoke to Amit Chita, Field CTO at Mend.io, the rise of AI agents in the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) presents a unique opportunity for s...

15 Heinä 202545min