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Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#21

Post by jonathanlydall »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #8
jmclnx wrote: post #7

Another day another vulnerability with Microsoft. I wonder if this will incentivize the countries to move faster with Linux. Probably not since there are so many of these breaches people just ignore them. I miss the old days when a breach involved someone breaking into the computer room and grabbing as many mag tapes as they can carry and run :)

Genuinely asking - is there a Linux alternative to Sharepoint? I couldn't care less if it was lit on metaphorical fire and dumped into the sea, but a lot of orgs using it extensively.

Sorry, I don’t know the answer to your question, but I can offer some possible insight into why it’s used so much.

We’re on Microsoft 365 and technically fall into the camp of “uses SharePoint”, but only for “shared network folder” usage which OneDrive seamlessly synchronizes should you dislike the web interface. We don’t actively use any other features of it.

Also worth mentioning that realtime collaboration and automatic versioning of Office documents is seamless for files on SharePoint, even if opened on a desktop on a OneDrive synchronized folder.

Files shared over Teams as well as meeting recordings are also stored on SharePoint.

My point is that SharePoint is used a lot but possibly not in the way one might have assumed.

I don’t know if self hosted SharePoint can do all this.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#23

Post by tripdout »

hulitu wrote: post #15
dylan604 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how does this work for someone to know what server to use the exploit? Do companies make their Sharepoint servers accessible to WWW? Do hackers need to use this on a network they've already pwnd? Finding out the FBI put something like this on a server open to the WWW would be classic. That much larger group just got a wee bit larger than they previously thought on their previously thought number.

> Do companies make their Sharepoint servers accessible to WWW? Microsoft was pushing companies to use its Azure cloud services. Now everything is in the cloud. And accessible to WWW.

The post says it only applies to on-prem servers, not cloud ones like Microsoft 365.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#24

Post by tombert »

At the risk of massive downvotes, I have to admit that a small part of me wants this so that maybe corporations stop using Sharepoint as soon as possible.

Seriously, I haven't used it since 2017, but every time I used it then it was the worst part of my day. I used to have a shirt that said SHarepoIT Happens that I would wear to work, and it seemed like the one thing I could get my coworkers agree on was that Sharepoint is terrible and we'd rather use anything else.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#25

Post by ho_schi »

jmclnx wrote: post #7

Another day another vulnerability with Microsoft. I wonder if this will incentivize the countries to move faster with Linux. Probably not since there are so many of these breaches people just ignore them. I miss the old days when a breach involved someone breaking into the computer room and grabbing as many mag tapes as they can carry and run :)

I wonder what drives people using Microsoft and then using more from this company.

   We didn’t knew it better, back then. We knew it better, now. But migrating is work. So we prefer to suffer! And harm others! This Linux and BSD people are so annoying with their desire for compatibility. They shall suffer, too! And when we buy everything from a Monopoly, we don’t need to think.
Somehow. Part of the game is that you’ve always an excuse with Microsoft. You cannot made responsible? There is this quote about IBM:

    Nobody Ever Got Fired for Buying IBM.
But I cannot remember stories about suffering from IBM forever.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#26

Post by hulitu »

jmclnx wrote: post #7

Another day another vulnerability with Microsoft. I wonder if this will incentivize the countries to move faster with Linux. Probably not since there are so many of these breaches people just ignore them. I miss the old days when a breach involved someone breaking into the computer room and grabbing as many mag tapes as they can carry and run :)

> I wonder if this will incentivize the countries to move faster with Linux.

Countries are run by politicians. The ability of a politician to remember something is inverse proportional to the sum of money landed in its account.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#27

Post by sega_sai »

It is instructive that we are seeing the results of DOGE's work:

"The process took six hours Saturday night — much longer than it otherwise would have, because the threat-intelligence and incident-response teams have been cut by 65 percent as CISA slashed funding, Rose said."

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#28

Post by kuhsaft »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #8
jmclnx wrote: post #7

Another day another vulnerability with Microsoft. I wonder if this will incentivize the countries to move faster with Linux. Probably not since there are so many of these breaches people just ignore them. I miss the old days when a breach involved someone breaking into the computer room and grabbing as many mag tapes as they can carry and run :)

Genuinely asking - is there a Linux alternative to Sharepoint? I couldn't care less if it was lit on metaphorical fire and dumped into the sea, but a lot of orgs using it extensively.

For collaborative documentation, there’s probably a bunch of alternatives.

But SharePoint is the linchpin for Microsoft 365. Well technically SharePoint and Exchange. You can’t use any Microsoft 365 products without SharePoint.

OneDrive uses SharePoint. Outlook Groups and Teams Channels create Microsoft 365 Groups. Every Microsoft 365 Group creates a SharePoint site. Microsoft Loop uses Microsoft SharePoint Embedded.

SharePoint is now a “file and document management system suitable for use in any application”.

So, if you want an alternative to SharePoint you would need an alternative to any M365 Product, including Outlook and OneDrive.

Fun Fact: Teams messages are actually stored via Exchange Mailboxes.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/embedded/ov...

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#29

Post by [deleted] »

hulitu wrote: post #15
dylan604 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how does this work for someone to know what server to use the exploit? Do companies make their Sharepoint servers accessible to WWW? Do hackers need to use this on a network they've already pwnd? Finding out the FBI put something like this on a server open to the WWW would be classic. That much larger group just got a wee bit larger than they previously thought on their previously thought number.

> Do companies make their Sharepoint servers accessible to WWW? Microsoft was pushing companies to use its Azure cloud services. Now everything is in the cloud. And accessible to WWW.

[deleted]

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#30

Post by hulitu »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #21
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely asking - is there a Linux alternative to Sharepoint? I couldn't care less if it was lit on metaphorical fire and dumped into the sea, but a lot of orgs using it extensively.

Sorry, I don’t know the answer to your question, but I can offer some possible insight into why it’s used so much. We’re on Microsoft 365 and technically fall into the camp of “uses SharePoint”, but only for “shared network folder” usage which OneDrive seamlessly synchronizes should you dislike the web interface. We don’t actively use any other features of it. Also worth mentioning that realtime collaboration and aut…

> seamlessly

In 50 % of the time.

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