Security & Threat Intelligence · 31.07.2026, 22:18 UTC
CaptiveCrunch: Midnight Blizzard targets travelers worldwide for malware delivery and credential theft
| Schweregrad | high aktiv ausgenutzt (KEV) |
|---|---|
| Kategorie | Security & Threat Intelligence |
| Quelle | Microsoft Security Blog ↗ |
| Veröffentlicht | 31.07.2026 UTC |
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In this article
The CaptiveCrunch campaignStorm-2945 and Midnight BlizzardCaptiveCrunch tradecraft and toolingHow to protect against CaptiveCrunch activityMicrosoft Defender detections and hunting guidanceIndicators of compromise
Since early May 2026, Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed Storm-2945, a sub-cluster of Midnight Blizzard, conducting widespread but targeted traffic manipulation attacks involving hospitality sector networks served by captive portals worldwide. Despite some tactic, technique, and procedure (TTP) similarities to the Forest Blizzard DNS hijacking operation that we publicly disclosed in April 2026, we attribute this campaign, which we call CaptiveCrunch, to Storm-2945. As reported by ReliaQuest on July 23, a portion of this activity leverages doppelganger domains mimicking Microsoft online services to conduct follow-on adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) phishing operations that abuse the device code authentication flow in Microsoft Entra ID. Microsoft Threat Intelligence has also identified active traffic manipulation attacks leading to the delivery of malware on impacted systems. Microsoft has observed Storm-2945 leveraging AI to support a significant portion of these operations.
Today, we are sharing our findings on these ongoing intrusions to raise awareness of this threat and enable customers to protect their devices, especially while traveling. We provide our assessment of Storm-2945’s relationship to Midnight Blizzard and analysis of the CaptiveCrunch campaign, detailing the malware and tradecraft used in these …