Microsoft Office Phishing Attack Hosted on Google Firebase
A phishing campaign set on stealing Microsoft login credentials is utilizing Google Firebase to bypass email security efforts in Microsoft Office 365, researchers said.
Researchers at Armorblox revealed invoice-themed emails sent off to at least 20,000 mailboxes that indicate to share data about an electronic funds transfer (EFT) payment. The emails convey a genuinely vanilla subject line, “TRANSFER OF PAYMENT NOTICE FOR INVOICE,” and contain a link to download an “invoice” from the cloud.
Clicking on that link starts a progression of redirects that at last takes targets to a page with Microsoft Office branding that is facilitated on Google Firebase. That page is obviously a phishing page, designed to collect Microsoft log in data, secondary email addresses, and phone numbers. “Since all workplace accounts are so closely interlinked, sharing credentials to one of your accounts can prove to be very dangerous as cybercriminals send emails in your name to trick your customers, partners, acquaintances and family members,” as indicated by Armorblox.
Impersonating Microsoft to phish for account credentials continues being an incredible method since it’s a way for attackers to embed themselves into typical business work processes, said Rajat Upadhyaya, head of engineering at Armorblox. “Viewing documents via Office 365 is something we do every day, so victims might think it’s not unusual to enter login credentials in this situation,” Upadhyaya added. “Plus, hosting the final phishing page on Google Firebase lends the domain inherent legitimacy and allows it to bypass email security blocklists and filters.”
The email assault bypassed native Microsoft email security controls. Microsoft appointed a Spam Confidence Level (SCL) of ‘1’ to this email, which implies that the tech giant didn’t decide the email as dubious and conveyed it to end-user mailboxes. Strangely, by facilitating the phishing page HTML on Google Firebase, an inherently trusted domain, the emails had the option to nip past underlying Microsoft security filters, including Exchange Online Protection (EOP) and Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
For better protection against email-borne threats, employees ought to be prepared to engage with emails identified with cash and information with an “eye test” that incorporates investigating the sender name, sender email address, language inside the email, and any legitimate irregularities inside the email, as per Armorblox.
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