My Outlook account got hacked. E-mails leaked by IMAP automatic sync. How this happened?

Anonymous
2017-12-27T07:24:23+00:00

My Outlook account got hacked. Have been using this e-mail  account from the early days of Hotmail. E-mails leaked by IMAP automatic sync despite using different password than on other sites and having two factor authentication activated.

Got warning SMS from Microsoft and when checking recent activity, i saw multiple "Successful Syncs" listed from countries like China, Thailand, Russia, Poland, Brazil, Ukraine, Philippines, Kazakhstan and Iran. These syncs took place in two different times in four hour intervals. How could this be possible? Why Microsoft detected that something fishy is going on but allowed sync to be completed anyway? Doesn't IMAP sync have some kind of location based checks in place like when logging in into other MS sites and services?

Since then, I have changed the password of my account, unlinked Skype from my Microsoft account, deleted any active app passwords.

I see again some IMAP syncs in my activity tab and they are now marked as "Unsuccessful". Small consolation knowing that your whole e-mail history is already leaked into some Chinese servers :(

How this all could have happened? Is there a security hole in Microsoft's IMAP sync implementation?

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Account management, security, and privacy

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2019-10-19T13:55:26+00:00

Dear Tech community,

as far as we know now, there was an UX issue on the MSA recent activity page, where a subset of unsuccessful IMAP syncs are erroneously shown as successful. This bug should be fixed in a couple of days and we hope that no one was ever compromised.

Cheers

Volker

P.S.: IP addresses are translating to countries like Bangladesh, Brasil, China etc. A hacker can  simply fake their source IP, therefore it is difficult to say, where the hack attacks are coming from. Please just keep using security best practices for your hotmail/outlook accounts with difficult passwords to be changed as often as possible and leverage multi factor authentication.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2018/11/20/sign-in-to-your-microsoft-account-without-a-password-using-windows-hello-or-a-security-key/

All other email providers have the same challenge to help their customers to secure their username/password authentications.

Was this answer helpful?

10+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

224 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2019-10-24T08:08:37+00:00

    I have just received a notification regarding successful syncs in different countries like you have mentioned. Should I be concerned or is this just a still a system bug?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2019-10-22T16:11:42+00:00

    I have received 3 notifications in the last 24 hours regarding this saying there has been 3 succesful synchronisation. Is this correct or is this the bug you refer to?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2019-10-21T07:32:28+00:00

    Dear Tech community,

    as far as we know now, there was an UX issue on the MSA recent activity page, where a subset of unsuccessful IMAP syncs are erroneously shown as successful. This bug should be fixed in a couple of days and we hope that no one was ever compromised.

    Cheers

    Volker

    P.S.: IP addresses are translating to countries like Bangladesh, Brasil, China etc. A hacker can  simply fake their source IP, therefore it is difficult to say, where the hack attacks are coming from. Please just keep using security best practices for your hotmail/outlook accounts with difficult passwords to be changed as often as possible and leverage multi factor authentication.

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2018/11/20/sign-in-to-your-microsoft-account-without-a-password-using-windows-hello-or-a-security-key/

    All other email providers have the same challenge to help their customers to secure their username/password authentications.

    No really they don't gmail will notify you within moments and even with the right password an unusual location for the account in instantly blocked. No access. Step it up Microsoft.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2019-10-21T04:45:46+00:00

    I have received a text message saying someone may have accessed my account then when checking my recent activity i see the same stuff appearing. Automatic syncs from random locations. Is the same thing happening to me? Is it just a bug?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments