Microsoft Warns Customers on Vulnerability in Azure’s Central Database

Microsoft has reportedly warned thousands of its cloud computing customers, including some of the world’s largest companies that intruders could have the ability to read, change or even delete their main databases.

According to the reports, the vulnerability is in Microsoft Azure’s flagship Cosmos DB database. A research team at security company Wiz discovered it was able to access keys that control access to databases held by thousands of companies. Wiz Chief Technology Officer Ami Luttwak is a former chief technology officer at Microsoft’s Cloud Security Group.

Because Microsoft cannot change those keys by itself, it emailed the customers telling them to create new ones. Microsoft agreed to pay Wiz $40,000 for finding the flaw and reporting it, according to an email it sent to Wiz.

Microsoft’s email to customers said it has fixed the vulnerability and that there was no evidence the flaw had been exploited. “We have no indication that external entities outside the researcher (Wiz) had access to the primary read-write key,” the email said.

Problems with Azure are especially troubling, because Microsoft and security experts have been pushing companies to abandon most of their own infrastructure and rely on the cloud for more security. But though cloud attacks are more rare, they can be more devastating when they occur.