Login
Microsoft today issued security updates for more than 100 newly-discovered vulnerabilities in its Windows operating system and related software, including four flaws that are already being exploited. In addition, Apple recently released emergency updates to quash a pair of zero-day bugs in iOS.
Apple last week shipped emergency updates in iOS 17.0.3 and iPadOS 17.0.3 in response to active attacks. The patch fixes CVE-2023-42724, which attackers have been using in targeted attacks to elevate their access on a local device.
Apple said it also patched CVE-2023-5217, which is not listed as a zero-day bug. However, as Bleeping Computer pointed out, this flaw is caused by a weakness in the open-source “libvpx” video codec library, which was previously patched as a zero-day flaw by Google in the Chrome browser and by Microsoft in Edge, Teams, and Skype products. For anyone keeping count, this is the 17th zero-day flaw that Apple has patched so far this year.
Fortunately, the zero-days affecting Microsoft customers this month are somewhat less severe than usual, with the exception of CVE-2023-44487. This weakness is not specific to Windows but instead exists within the HTTP/2 protocol used by the World Wide Web: Attackers have figured out how to use a feature of HTTP/2 to massively increase the size of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and these monster attacks reportedly have been going on for several weeks now.
Amazon, Cloudflare and Google all released advisories today about how they’re addressing CVE-2023-44487 in their cloud environments. Google’s Damian Menscher wrote on Twitter/X that the exploit — dubbed a “rapid reset attack” — works by sending a request and then immediately cancelling it (a feature of HTTP/2). “This lets attackers skip waiting for responses, resulting in a more efficient attack,” Menscher explained.
Natalie Silva, lead security engineer at Immersive Labs, said this flaw’s impact to enterprise customers could be significant, and lead to prolonged downtime.
“It is crucial for organizations to apply the latest patches and updates from their web server vendors to mitigate this vulnerability and protect against such attacks,” Silva said. In this month’s Patch Tuesday release by Microsoft, they have released both an update to this vulnerability, as well as a temporary workaround should you not be able to patch immediately.”
Microsoft also patched zero-day bugs in Skype for Business (CVE-2023-41763) and Wordpad (CVE-2023-36563). The latter vulnerability could expose NTLM hashes, which are used for authentication in Windows environments.
“It may or may not be a coincidence that Microsoft announced last month that WordPad is no longer being updated, and will be removed in a future version of Windows, although no specific timeline has yet been given,” said Adam Barnett, lead software engineer at Rapid7. “Unsurprisingly, Microsoft recommends Word as a replacement for WordPad.”
Other notable bugs addressed by Microsoft include CVE-2023-35349, a remote code execution weakness in the Message Queuing (MSMQ) service, a technology that allows applications across multiple servers or hosts to communicate with each other. This vulnerability has earned a CVSS severity score of 9.8 (10 is the worst possible). Happily, the MSMQ service is not enabled by default in Windows, although Immersive Labs notes that Microsoft Exchange Server can enable this service during installation.
Speaking of Exchange, Microsoft also patched CVE-2023-36778, a vulnerability in all current versions of Exchange Server that could allow attackers to run code of their choosing. Rapid7’s Barnett said successful exploitation requires that the attacker be on the same network as the Exchange Server host, and use valid credentials for an Exchange user in a PowerShell session.
For a more detailed breakdown on the updates released today, see the SANS Internet Storm Center roundup. If today’s updates cause any stability or usability issues in Windows, AskWoody.com will likely have the lowdown on that.
Please consider backing up your data and/or imaging your system before applying any updates. And feel free to sound off in the comments if you experience any difficulties as a result of these patches.
Microsoft today issued software updates to fix at least five dozen security holes in Windows and supported software, including patches for two zero-day vulnerabilities that are already being exploited. Also, Adobe, Google Chrome and Apple iOS users may have their own zero-day patching to do.
On Sept. 7, researchers at Citizen Lab warned they were seeing active exploitation of a “zero-click,” zero-day flaw to install spyware on iOS devices without any interaction from the victim.
“The exploit chain was capable of compromising iPhones running the latest version of iOS (16.6) without any interaction from the victim,” the researchers wrote.
According to Citizen Lab, the exploit uses malicious images sent via iMessage, an embedded component of Apple’s iOS that has been the source of previous zero-click flaws in iPhones and iPads.
Apple says the iOS flaw (CVE-2023-41064) does not seem to work against devices that have its ultra-paranoid “Lockdown Mode” enabled. This feature restricts non-essential iOS features to reduce the device’s overall attack surface, and it was designed for users concerned that they may be subject to targeted attacks. Citizen Lab says the bug it discovered was being exploited to install spyware made by the Israeli cyber surveillance company NSO Group.
This vulnerability is fixed in iOS 16.6.1 and iPadOS 16.6.1. To turn on Lockdown Mode in iOS 16, go to Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Lockdown Mode.
Not to be left out of the zero-day fun, Google acknowledged on Sept. 11 that an exploit for a heap overflow bug in Chrome is being exploited in the wild. Google says it is releasing updates to fix the flaw, and that restarting Chrome is the way to apply any pending updates. Interestingly, Google says this bug was reported by Apple and Citizen Lab.
On the Microsoft front, a zero-day in Microsoft Word is among the more concerning bugs fixed today. Tracked as CVE-2023-36761, it is flagged as an “information disclosure” vulnerability. But that description hardly grasps at the sensitivity of the information potentially exposed here.
Tom Bowyer, manager of product security at Automox, said exploiting this vulnerability could lead to the disclosure of Net-NTLMv2 hashes, which are used for authentication in Windows environments.
“If a malicious actor gains access to these hashes, they can potentially impersonate the user, gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data and systems,” Bowyer said, noting that CVE-2023-36761 can be exploited just by viewing a malicious document in the Windows preview pane. “They could also conduct pass-the-hash attacks, where the attacker uses the hashed version of a password to authenticate themselves without needing to decrypt it.”
The other Windows zero-day fixed this month is CVE-2023-36802. This is an “elevation of privilege” flaw in the “Microsoft Streaming Service Proxy,” which is built into Windows 10, 11 and Windows Server versions. Microsoft says an attacker who successfully exploits the bug can gain SYSTEM level privileges on a Windows computer.
Five of the flaws Microsoft fixed this month earned its “critical” rating, which the software giant reserves for vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malware or malcontents with little or no interaction by Windows users.
According to the SANS Internet Storm Center, the most serious critical bug in September’s Patch Tuesday is CVE-2023-38148, which is a weakness in the Internet Connection Sharing service on Windows. Microsoft says an unauthenticated attacker could leverage the flaw to install malware just sending a specially crafted data packet to a vulnerable Windows system.
Finally, Adobe has released critical security updates for its Adobe Reader and Acrobat software that also fixes a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2023-26369). More details are at Adobe’s advisory.
For a more granular breakdown of the Windows updates pushed out today, check out Microsoft Patch Tuesday by Morphus Labs. In the meantime, consider backing up your data before updating Windows, and keep an eye on AskWoody.com for reports of any widespread problems with any of the updates released as part of September’s Patch Tuesday.
Update: Mozilla also has fixed zero-day flaw in Firefox and Thunderbird, and the Brave browser was updated as well. It appears the common theme here is any software that uses a code library called “libwebp,” and that this vulnerability is being tracked as CVE-2023-4863.
“This includes Electron-based applications, for example – Signal,” writes StackDiary.com. “Electron patched the vulnerability yesterday. Also, software like Honeyview (from Bandisoft) released an update to fix the issue. CVE-2023-4863 was falsely marked as Chrome-only by Mitre and other organizations that track CVE’s and 100% of media reported this issue as “Chrome only”, when it’s not.”
Author:: TW-D
Version:: 1.3.7
Copyright:: Copyright (c) 2022 TW-D
License:: Distributes under the same terms as Ruby
Doc:: https://hak5.github.io/mk7-docs/docs/rest/rest/
Requires:: Ruby >= 2.7.0p0 and Pineapple Mark VII >= 2.1.0-stable
Installation (Debian, Ubuntu, Raspbian)::
sudo apt-get install build-essential curl g++ ruby ruby-dev
sudo gem install net-ssh rest-client tty-progressbar
Library allowing the automation of active or passive attack operations.
Note : "Issues" and "Pull Request" are welcome.
In "./payloads/" directory, you will find :
| COMMAND and CONTROL | Author | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Hak5 Key Croc - Real-time recovery of keystrokes from a keyboard | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./hak5_key-croc.rb |
| Maltronics WiFi Deauther - Spam beacon frames | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./maltronics_wifi-deauther.rb |
| DEFENSE | Author | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Hak5 Pineapple Spotter | TW-D with special thanks to @DrSKiZZ, @cribb-it, @barry99705 and @dark_pyrro | (edit) ruby ./hak5-pineapple_spotter.rb |
| DoS | Author | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Deauthentication of clients available on the access points | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./deauthentication-clients.rb |
| EXPLOITATION | Author | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Evil WPA Access Point | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./evil-wpa_access-point.rb |
| Fake Access Points | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./fake_access-points.rb |
| Mass Handshakes | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./mass-handshakes.rb |
| Rogue Access Points | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./rogue_access-points.rb |
| Twin Access Points | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./twin_access-points.rb |
| GENERAL | Author | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| System Status, Disk Usage, ... | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./dashboard-stats.rb |
| Networking Interfaces | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./networking-interfaces.rb |
| System Logs | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./system-logs.rb |
| RECON | Author | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Access Points and Clients on 2.4GHz and 5GHz (with a supported adapter) | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./access-points_clients_5ghz.rb |
| Access Points and Clients | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./access-points_clients.rb |
| MAC Addresses of Access Points | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./access-points_mac-addresses.rb |
| Tagged Parameters of Access Points | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./access-points_tagged-parameters.rb |
| Access Points and Wireless Network Mapping with WiGLE | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./access-points_wigle.rb |
| MAC Addresses of Clients | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./clients_mac-addresses.rb |
| OPEN Access Points | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./open_access-points.rb |
| WEP Access Points | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./wep_access-points.rb |
| WPA Access Points | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./wpa_access-points.rb |
| WPA2 Access Points | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./wpa2_access-points.rb |
| WPA3 Access Points | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./wpa3_access-points.rb |
| WARDRIVING | Author | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous Recon on 2.4GHz and 5GHz (with a supported adapter) | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./continuous-recon_5ghz.rb [CTRL+c] |
| Continuous Recon for Handshakes Capture | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./continuous-recon_handshakes.rb [CTRL+c] |
| Continuous Recon | TW-D | (edit) ruby ./continuous-recon.rb [CTRL+c] |
FreshRSS 
#
# Title: <TITLE>
#
# Description: <DESCRIPTION>
#
#
# Author: <AUTHOR>
# Version: <VERSION>
# Category: <CATEGORY>
#
# STATUS
# ======================
# <SHORT-DESCRIPTION> ... SETUP
# <SHORT-DESCRIPTION> ... ATTACK
# <SHORT-DESCRIPTION> ... SPECIAL
# <SHORT-DESCRIPTION> ... FINISH
# <SHORT-DESCRIPTION> ... CLEANUP
# <SHORT-DESCRIPTION> ... OFF
#
require_relative('<PATH-TO>/classes/PineappleMK7.rb')
system_authentication = PineappleMK7::System::Authentication.new
system_authentication.host = "<PINEAPPLE-IP-ADDRESS>"
system_authentication.port = 1471
system_authentication.mac = "<PINEAPPLE-MAC-ADDRESS>"
system_authentication.password = "<ROOT-ACCOUNT-PASSWORD>"
if (system_authentication.login)
led = PineappleMK7::System::LED.new
# SETUP
#
led.setup
#
# [...]
#
# ATTACK
#
led.attack
#
# [...]
#
# SPECIAL
#
led.special
#
# [...]
#
# FINISH
#
led.finish
#
# [...]
#
# CLEANUP
#
led.cleanup
#
# [...]
#
# OFF
#
led.off
endNote : Don't hesitate to take inspiration from the payloads directory.
system_authentication = PineappleMK7::System::Authentication.new
system_authentication.host = (string) "<PINEAPPLE-IP-ADDRESS>"
system_authentication.port = (integer) 1471
system_authentication.mac = (string) "<PINEAPPLE-MAC-ADDRESS>"
system_authentication.password = (string) "<ROOT-ACCOUNT-PASSWORD>"
system_authentication.login()led = PineappleMK7::System::LED.new
led.setup()
led.failed()
led.attack()
led.special()
led.cleanup()
led.finish()
led.off()dashboard_notifications = PineappleMK7::Modules::Dashboard::Notifications.new
dashboard_notifications.clear()dashboard_stats = PineappleMK7::Modules::Dashboard::Stats.new
dashboard_stats.output()logging_system = PineappleMK7::Modules::Logging::System.new
logging_system.output()pineap_clients = PineappleMK7::Modules::PineAP::Clients.new
pineap_clients.connected_clients()
pineap_clients.previous_clients()
pineap_clients.kick( (string) mac )
pineap_clients.clear_previous()evil_wpa = PineappleMK7::Modules::PineAP::EvilWPA.new
evil_wpa.ssid = (string default:'PineAP_WPA')
evil_wpa.bssid = (string default:'00:13:37:BE:EF:00')
evil_wpa.auth = (string default:'psk2+ccmp')
evil_wpa.password = (string default:'pineapplesareyummy')
evil_wpa.hidden = (boolean default:false)
evil_wpa.enabled = (boolean default:false)
evil_wpa.capture_handshakes = (boolean default:false)
evil_wpa.save()pineap_filtering = PineappleMK7::Modules::PineAP::Filtering.new
pineap_filtering.client_filter( (string) 'allow' | 'deny' )
pineap_filtering.add_client( (string) mac )
pineap_filtering.clear_clients()
pineap_filtering.ssid_filter( (string) 'allow' | 'deny' )pineap_impersonation = PineappleMK7::Modules::PineAP::Impersonation.new
pineap_impersonation.output()
pineap_impersonation.add_ssid( (string) ssid )
pineap_impersonation.clear_pool()open_ap = PineappleMK7::Modules::PineAP::OpenAP.new
open_ap.output()pineap_settings = PineappleMK7::Modules::PineAP::Settings.new
pineap_settings.enablePineAP = (boolean default:true)
pineap_settings.autostartPineAP = (boolean default:true)
pineap_settings.armedPineAP = (boolean default:false)
pineap_settings.ap_channel = (string default:'11')
pineap_settings.karma = (boolean default:false)
pineap_settings.logging = (boolean default:false)
pineap_settings.connect_notifications = (boolean default:false)
pineap_settings.disconnect_notifications = (boolean default:false)
pineap_settings.capture_ssids = (boolean default:false)
pineap_settings.beacon_responses = (boolean default:false)
pineap_settings.broadcast_ssid_pool = (boolean default:false)
pineap_settings.broadcast_ssid_pool_random = (boolean default:false)
pineap_settings.pineap_mac = (string default:system_authentication.mac)
pineap_settings.target_mac = (string default:'FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF')< br/>pineap_settings.beacon_response_interval = (string default:'NORMAL')
pineap_settings.beacon_interval = (string default:'NORMAL')
pineap_settings.save()recon_handshakes = PineappleMK7::Modules::Recon::Handshakes.new
recon_handshakes.start( (object) ap )
recon_handshakes.stop()
recon_handshakes.output()
recon_handshakes.download( (object) handshake, (string) destination )
recon_handshakes.clear()recon_scanning = PineappleMK7::Modules::Recon::Scanning.new
recon_scanning.start( (integer) scan_time )
recon_scanning.start_continuous( (boolean) autoHandshake )
recon_scanning.stop_continuous()
recon_scanning.output( (integer) scanID )
recon_scanning.tags( (object) ap )
recon_scanning.deauth_ap( (object) ap )
recon_scanning.delete( (integer) scanID )settings_networking = PineappleMK7::Modules::Settings::Networking.new
settings_networking.interfaces()
settings_networking.client_scan( (string) interface )
settings_networking.client_connect( (object) network, (string) interface )
settings_networking.client_disconnect( (string) interface )
settings_networking.recon_interface( (string) interface )
Microsoft Corp. today released software updates to quash 130 security bugs in its Windows operating systems and related software, including at least five flaws that are already seeing active exploitation. Meanwhile, Apple customers have their own zero-day woes again this month: On Monday, Apple issued (and then quickly pulled) an emergency update to fix a zero-day vulnerability that is being exploited on MacOS and iOS devices.
On July 10, Apple pushed a “Rapid Security Response” update to fix a code execution flaw in the Webkit browser component built into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS Ventura. Almost as soon as the patch went out, Apple pulled the software because it was reportedly causing problems loading certain websites. MacRumors says Apple will likely re-release the patches when the glitches have been addressed.
Launched in May, Apple’s Rapid Security Response updates are designed to address time-sensitive vulnerabilities, and this is the second month Apple has used it. July marks the sixth month this year that Apple has released updates for zero-day vulnerabilities — those that get exploited by malware or malcontents before there is an official patch available.
If you rely on Apple devices and don’t have automatic updates enabled, please take a moment to check the patch status of your various iDevices. The latest security update that includes the fix for the zero-day bug should be available in iOS/iPadOS 16.5.1, macOS 13.4.1, and Safari 16.5.2.
On the Windows side, there are at least four vulnerabilities patched this month that earned high CVSS (badness) scores and that are already being exploited in active attacks, according to Microsoft. They include CVE-2023-32049, which is a hole in Windows SmartScreen that lets malware bypass security warning prompts; and CVE-2023-35311 allows attackers to bypass security features in Microsoft Outlook.
The two other zero-day threats this month for Windows are both privilege escalation flaws. CVE-2023-32046 affects a core Windows component called MSHTML, which is used by Windows and other applications, like Office, Outlook and Skype. CVE-2023-36874 is an elevation of privilege bug in the Windows Error Reporting Service.
Many security experts expected Microsoft to address a fifth zero-day flaw — CVE-2023-36884 — a remote code execution weakness in Office and Windows.
“Surprisingly, there is no patch yet for one of the five zero-day vulnerabilities,” said Adam Barnett, lead software engineer at Rapid7. “Microsoft is actively investigating publicly disclosed vulnerability, and promises to update the advisory as soon as further guidance is available.”
Barnett notes that Microsoft links exploitation of this vulnerability with Storm-0978, the software giant’s name for a cybercriminal group based out of Russia that is identified by the broader security community as RomCom.
“Exploitation of CVE-2023-36884 may lead to installation of the eponymous RomCom trojan or other malware,” Barnett said. “[Microsoft] suggests that RomCom / Storm-0978 is operating in support of Russian intelligence operations. The same threat actor has also been associated with ransomware attacks targeting a wide array of victims.”
Microsoft’s advisory on CVE-2023-36884 is pretty sparse, but it does include a Windows registry hack that should help mitigate attacks on this vulnerability. Microsoft has also published a blog post about phishing campaigns tied to Storm-0978 and to the exploitation of this flaw.
Barnett said it’s while it’s possible that a patch will be issued as part of next month’s Patch Tuesday, Microsoft Office is deployed just about everywhere, and this threat actor is making waves.
“Admins should be ready for an out-of-cycle security update for CVE-2023-36884,” he said.
Microsoft also today released new details about how it plans to address the existential threat of malware that is cryptographically signed by…wait for it….Microsoft.
In late 2022, security experts at Sophos, Trend Micro and Cisco warned that ransomware criminals were using signed, malicious drivers in an attempt to evade antivirus and endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools.
In a blog post today, Sophos’s Andrew Brandt wrote that Sophos identified 133 malicious Windows driver files that were digitally signed since April 2021, and found 100 of those were actually signed by Microsoft. Microsoft said today it is taking steps to ensure those malicious driver files can no longer run on Windows computers.
As KrebsOnSecurity noted in last month’s story on malware signing-as-a-service, code-signing certificates are supposed to help authenticate the identity of software publishers, and provide cryptographic assurance that a signed piece of software has not been altered or tampered with. Both of these qualities make stolen or ill-gotten code-signing certificates attractive to cybercriminal groups, who prize their ability to add stealth and longevity to malicious software.
Dan Goodin at Ars Technica contends that whatever Microsoft may be doing to keep maliciously signed drivers from running on Windows is being bypassed by hackers using open source software that is popular with video game cheaters.
“The software comes in the form of two software tools that are available on GitHub,” Goodin explained. “Cheaters use them to digitally sign malicious system drivers so they can modify video games in ways that give the player an unfair advantage. The drivers clear the considerable hurdle required for the cheat code to run inside the Windows kernel, the fortified layer of the operating system reserved for the most critical and sensitive functions.”
Meanwhile, researchers at Cisco’s Talos security team found multiple Chinese-speaking threat groups have repurposed the tools—one apparently called “HookSignTool” and the other “FuckCertVerifyTimeValidity.”
“Instead of using the kernel access for cheating, the threat actors use it to give their malware capabilities it wouldn’t otherwise have,” Goodin said.
For a closer look at the patches released by Microsoft today, check out the always-thorough Patch Tuesday roundup from the SANS Internet Storm Center. And it’s not a bad idea to hold off updating for a few days until Microsoft works out any kinks in the updates: AskWoody.com usually has the lowdown on any patches that may be causing problems for Windows users.
And as ever, please consider backing up your system or at least your important documents and data before applying system updates. If you encounter any problems with these updates, please drop a note about it here in the comments.
The United Parcel Service (UPS) says fraudsters have been harvesting phone numbers and other information from its online shipment tracking tool in Canada to send highly targeted SMS phishing (a.k.a. “smishing”) messages that spoofed UPS and other top brands. The missives addressed recipients by name, included details about recent orders, and warned that those orders wouldn’t be shipped unless the customer paid an added delivery fee.
In a snail mail letter sent this month to Canadian customers, UPS Canada Ltd. said it is aware that some package recipients have received fraudulent text messages demanding payment before a package can be delivered, and that it has been working with partners in its delivery chain to try to understand how the fraud was occurring.
The recent letter from UPS about SMS phishers harvesting shipment details and phone numbers from its website.
“During that review, UPS discovered a method by which a person who searched for a particular package or misused a package look-up tool could obtain more information about the delivery, potentially including a recipient’s phone number,” the letter reads. “Because this information could be misused by third parties, including potentially in a smishing scheme, UPS has taken steps to limit access to that information.”
The written notice goes on to say UPS believes the data exposure “affected packages for a small group of shippers and some of their customers from February 1, 2022 to April 24, 2023.”
As early as April 2022, KrebsOnSecurity began receiving tips from Canadian readers who were puzzling over why they’d just received one of these SMS phishing messages that referenced information from a recent order they’d legitimately placed at an online retailer.
In March, 2023, a reader named Dylan from British Columbia wrote in to say he’d received one of these shipping fee scam messages not long after placing an order to buy gobs of building blocks directly from Lego.com. The message included his full name, phone number, and postal code, and urged him to click a link to mydeliveryfee-ups[.]info and pay a $1.55 delivery fee that was supposedly required to deliver his Legos.
“From searching the text of this phishing message, I can see that a lot of people have experienced this scam, which is more convincing because of the information the phishing text contains,” Dylan wrote. “It seems likely to me that UPS is leaking information somehow about upcoming deliveries.”
Josh is a reader who works for a company that ships products to Canada, and in early January 2023 he inquired whether there was any information about a breach at UPS Canada.
“We’ve seen many of our customers targeted with a fraudulent UPS text message scheme after placing an order,” Josh said. “A link is provided (often only after the customer responds to the text) which takes you to a captcha page, followed by a fraudulent payment collection page.”
Pivoting on the domain in the smishing message sent to Dylan shows the phishing domain shared an Internet host in Russia [91.215.85-166] with nearly two dozen other smishing related domains, including upsdelivery[.]info, legodelivery[.]info, adidascanadaltd[.]com, crocscanadafee[.]info, refw0234apple[.]info, vista-printcanada[.]info and telus-ca[.]info.
The inclusion of big-name brands in the domains of these UPS smishing campaigns suggests the perpetrators had the ability to focus their lookups on UPS customers who had recently ordered items from specific companies.
Attempts to visit these domains with a web browser failed, but loading them in a mobile device (or in my case, emulating a mobile device using a virtual machine and Developer Tools in Firefox) revealed the first stage of this smishing attack. As Josh mentioned, what first popped up was a CAPTCHA; after the visitor solved the CAPTCHA, they were taken through several more pages that requested the user’s full name, date of birth, credit card number, address, email and phone number.
A smishing website targeting Canadians who recently purchased from Adidas online. The site would only load in a mobile browser.
In April 2022, KrebsOnSecurity heard from Alex, the CEO of a technology company in Canada who asked to leave his last name out of this story. Alex reached out when he began receiving the smishing messages almost immediately after ordering two sets of Airpods directly from Apple’s website.
What puzzled Alex most was that he’d instructed Apple to send the Airpods as a gift to two different people, and less than 24 hours later the phone number he uses for his Apple account received two of the phishing messages, both of which contained salutations that included the names of the people for whom he’d bought Airpods.
“I’d put the recipient as different people on my team, but because it was my phone number on both orders I was the one getting the texts,” Alex explained. “That same day, I got text messages referring to me as two different people, neither of whom were me.”
Alex said he believes UPS Canada either doesn’t fully understand what happened yet, or it is being coy about what it knows. He said the wording of UPS’s response misleadingly suggests the smishing attacks were somehow the result of hackers randomly looking up package information via the company’s tracking website.
Alex said it’s likely that whoever is responsible figured out how to query the UPS Canada website for only pending orders from specific brands, perhaps by exploiting some type of application programming interface (API) that UPS Canada makes or made available to its biggest retail partners.
“It wasn’t like I put the order through [on Apple.ca] and some days or weeks later I got a targeted smishing attack,” he said. “It was more or less the same day. And it was as if [the phishers] were being notified the order existed.”
The letter to UPS Canada customers does not mention whether any other customers in North America were affected, and it remains unclear whether any UPS customers outside of Canada may have been targeted.
In a statement provided to KrebsOnSecurity, Sandy Springs, Ga. based UPS [NYSE:UPS] said the company has been working with partners in the delivery chain to understand how that fraud was being perpetrated, as well as with law enforcement and third-party experts to identify the cause of this scheme and to put a stop to it.
“Law enforcement has indicated that there has been an increase in smishing impacting a number of shippers and many different industries,” reads an email from Brian Hughes, director of financial and strategy communications at UPS.
“Out of an abundance of caution, UPS is sending privacy incident notification letters to individuals in Canada whose information may have been impacted,” Hughes said. “We encourage our customers and general consumers to learn about the ways they can stay protected against attempts like this by visiting the UPS Fight Fraud website.”
