Attempted attacks via email have not just been drawing attention since the latest waves of banking Trojan Dridex and ransomware Locky. Every day an average of almost 52 billion spam messages are sent. These involve not only mass attacks, but also highly targeted attacks such as spear phishing. In the current case, we are dealing with a scam that is generally aimed at companies. It seems to be a new approach which seems to be conclusive at first glance – especially in the corporate environment. The scam is only visible after careful examination. Would you have recognized it?
The email that arrives in potential victims' inboxes is supposedly an order with an attachment called purchase-order.htm:
From: VOLTRANS TRADING CO., LTD <t[GELOESCHT]n@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, 15 February 2016 15:00
To: Recipients <t[GELOESCHT]n@gmail.com>
Subject: Re:purchase order
Dear sir,
I sent you an email enquiry last week but i did not receive
any response from you regarding my order, so i have just sent
it again in case you did not receive it.
Please note my new purchase order list in my attached file,
and kindly send me your draft Quotation on the items.
Awaiting your reply.
Best Regards
With thanks & best regards,
Bu Emmi Pohan (Ms.) / Vice Accounting Manager
=====================================
VOLTRANS TRADING CO., LTD
No. 4/2, D2 Str., Ward 25, Binh Thanh Dist.,
Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM
There are several clues that expose the order as fake and potentially dangerous:
The .htm file is identified by G DATA security solutions as Script.Trojan-Stealer.Phish.AG. This involves HTML code that has been coded using the Base64 process. This means that the contents cannot be read directly by humans; however, modern browsers are nevertheless capable of displaying the HTML document normally, as can be seen in the following screenshot:
The file attempts to disguise itself as a type of Microsoft Excel online document. In the background, an Excel spreadsheet can be seen. However, this is just an image (order.png), not a spreadsheet that can be edited. This and other images are loaded from a server based in Hong Kong.
The attackers are trying to use social engineering techniques to make the potential victim even more curious about the supposed document. For example, the highlighted red text on the right hand side suggests that this is a confidential document.
But the appearance of the web page might give the user an indication that this is a fake. For example:
The attackers have very probably deliberately left the precise type of data being requested vague. Potential victims might therefore enter data for a Windows account, or perhaps even the login data for their company's domain, or some other data that might seem plausible to them at that moment. The form only checks whether the email address field contains an @ sign; no other checks are made.
After clicking on "Download", the data entered – the email address and password – are sent to the same server in Hong Kong from which the images were downloaded – albeit to a different domain. This now suggests that the entire server is under the attackers’ control. After the data has been sent, a web page opens containing an error message.
This web page is on a server in London, England. Here again, it looks like the attackers have seized the server to store their own data there, as this is a website that is actually legitimate but that now contains a subdirectory in which the attackers' data resides.
It is obvious in this error message that the attackers have copied together multiple texts without deleting duplications – as with the sign-off in the email. The last part of the message, "logging in or", does not fit the sentence. Even so, the attackers are using another social engineering technique here to encourage the user to enter data into the fake Excel document once again. As mentioned, the appearance is rather unprofessional. Presumably they also do not want to cause any more waves at this stage of the attack, as they have received at least one data set.
The loss of personal login data is always associated with risks!
If the attackers gain access to an email account – whether a private individual's or a company's – this can be used for sending more spam. For this reason, access to a company account is more attractive, of course, as it provides a trustworthy sender address as well as a trustworthy sender server.
This current scam, even though it does not ask for any log-in data in particular, suggests that Windows Live data are the focus. This data is valuable, because it offers access to a lot of services at the same time. Attackers can simultaneously spy on online Office documents, send emails, browse through the online files server and much more. They can gain access to a broad variety of tools and services as well as information. This can be misused as well – especially in the corporate environment.
If the data is lost in a company context, far-reaching problems can develop, such as unauthorised access to internal company data and emails. Such misuse can be carried out secretly by the attackers and, potentially, over a long period of time, e.g. until the affected user needs to reset his password due to corporate policy, or if irregularities occur in the system logs.
The data can also be sold on in underground markets by the attackers, subsequently bought by criminal buyers and misused for a wide range of activities.
The attackers have chosen a rather unknown scam for their attack and have used a new lure– this can be dangerous for inattentive readers. Vigilant and educated computer users can spot the scam quite easily: the email comes with a suspicious attachment, contains errors, as do the phishing page and the error message.
The HTML code suggests to us that they have copied together elements from various sources, presumably using different phishing kits, and have made mistakes when doing so as well.
Using the same server for delivering the images and collecting the phishing data is risky from the attackers' perspective. On the one hand, they are trying to cover up their tracks by visiting different domains, which would not immediately be suspicious in network data traffic, but on the other hand, with this attack, the server is a single point of failure for them.
This scam using a fake Excel document is entirely worth mentioning; however, luckily for the user, it can easily be revealed just by using your eyes.