New Phishing Campaign Targets US with Credential Theft: What CISOs Need to Know

What Happened

A new cyberattack is targeting U.S. organizations by sending fake event invitations. Employees at U.S. companies, particularly in education, banking, government, technology, and healthcare, are the primary targets. The attack steals email passwords and security codes, or installs remote access software, allowing attackers to break into company accounts or take control of computers. Employees should be cautious of unexpected event invitations and verify them before clicking links, while security teams should block the known malicious web addresses and monitor for unauthorized remote access tools.

Key Takeaways

• A large-scale phishing campaign is targeting U.S. organizations with fake event invitations.
• The attack leads to either credential and OTP theft or the installation of legitimate RMM tools.
• The campaign uses a CAPTCHA check to evade automated analysis before presenting the lure.
• Repeatable infrastructure patterns include specific URL paths like /Image/*.png, /favicon.ico, and /blocked.html.

Affected Systems

• Windows
• Email Accounts
• Google Accounts

Attack Chain

The attack begins with a phishing link disguised as an event invitation, which first directs the victim through a CAPTCHA check to evade automated analysis. Upon passing the CAPTCHA, the victim lands on a fake invitation page that branches into two potential attack paths. In the first path, the page prompts the user to log in to view the invitation, stealing their email credentials and subsequently intercepting their OTP codes via POST requests to attacker-controlled PHP endpoints. In the second path, the page automatically or manually triggers the download of a legitimate RMM tool (such as ScreenConnect or ConnectWise), granting the attacker persistent remote access to the victim's machine.

Detection Availability

• YARA Rules: No
• Sigma Rules: No
• Snort/Suricata Rules: No
• KQL Queries: No
• Splunk SPL Queries: No
• EQL Queries: No
• Other Detection Logic: Yes
• Platforms: ANY.RUN Threat Intelligence Lookup

The article provides a specific ANY.RUN Threat Intelligence query to identify related phishing infrastructure based on sequential URL request patterns.

Detection Engineering Assessment

EDR Visibility: Medium — EDR can detect the installation and execution of legitimate RMM tools, but the credential theft portion occurs entirely in the browser and network layer, which EDR may not fully inspect without network integration. Network Visibility: High — The campaign relies on highly predictable, sequential HTTP GET requests (/favicon.ico, /blocked.html, /Image/*.png) and specific POST endpoints (/processmail.php, /process.php), making network-based detection highly effective. Detection Difficulty: Moderate — While the network patterns are distinct, the use of legitimate RMM tools and CAPTCHA challenges can blend in with normal traffic and evade automated sandbox analysis.

Required Log Sources

• Proxy/Web Gateway Logs
• DNS Logs
• EDR Process Creation Logs

Hunting Hypotheses

Control Gaps

• Automated Sandbox Analysis (evaded by CAPTCHA)
• MFA (bypassed via real-time OTP interception)

Key Behavioral Indicators

• Sequential requests to /favicon.ico and /blocked.html
• POST requests to /processmail.php and /process.php
• Loading of specific PNG hashes for login icons

False Positive Assessment

• Low

Recommendations

Immediate Mitigation

• Block known phishing domains and URL patterns associated with the campaign.
• Hunt for unauthorized installations of RMM tools like ScreenConnect, ITarian, and ConnectWise.

Infrastructure Hardening

• Implement FIDO2/WebAuthn hardware security keys to prevent real-time OTP interception.
• Restrict the execution of unapproved RMM tools via AppLocker or WDAC.

User Protection

• Deploy browser-based phishing protection to block newly registered malicious domains.
• Enforce strict conditional access policies for remote logins.

Security Awareness

• Train employees to recognize fake event invitations and the risks of entering OTPs on non-standard login pages.
• Educate users on the dangers of downloading unexpected files from event invites.

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

• T1566.002 - Phishing: Spearphishing Link
• T1111 - Multi-Factor Authentication Interception
• T1219 - Remote Access Software
• T1056.002 - Input Capture: GUI Input Capture

Additional IOCs

• Urls:
  • hxxps://<phish_site>/<url-pattern>/pass.php - Endpoint used to exfiltrate Google account usernames
  • hxxps://<phish_site>/<url-pattern>/mlog.php - Endpoint used to exfiltrate Google account passwords
  • hxxps://<phish_site>/<url-pattern>/Image/office360.png - Predictable URL path for loading the Office365 icon on the phishing page
  • hxxps://<phish_site>/<url-pattern>/Image/office.png - Predictable URL path for loading the Office icon on the phishing page
  • hxxps://<phish_site>/<url-pattern>/Image/yahoo.png - Predictable URL path for loading the Yahoo icon on the phishing page
  • hxxps://<phish_site>/<url-pattern>/Image/google.png - Predictable URL path for loading the Google icon on the phishing page
  • hxxps://<phish_site>/<url-pattern>/Image/aol.png - Predictable URL path for loading the AOL icon on the phishing page
  • hxxps://<phish_site>/<url-pattern>/Image/email.png - Predictable URL path for loading the generic email icon on the phishing page
• File Hashes:
  • 887bc414bdb32b83dcfccdd3c688e90d9a87a0033e3756a840f9bdd2d65c5c74 (SHA256) - Hash of office360.png used in the phishing kit
  • 6eaa0a448f1306bcf4159783eeafe5d37243bd8ca2728db7d90de1929241dd29 (SHA256) - Hash of office.png used in the phishing kit
  • 4c373bc25cb71dbb75e73b61dff25aa184be8d327053a97202a6b1a5919cab0d (SHA256) - Hash of yahoo.png used in the phishing kit
  • a838f99537d35e48e479a34086297f76db5d3363b0456f23d10d308f0d30ed82 (SHA256) - Hash of google.png used in the phishing kit
  • 8e94c18bbcad0644c4b04de4356fe37da9996fdf1c99bc984ba819862a9b1889 (SHA256) - Hash of aol.png used in the phishing kit
  • 9a53e032a6e3e79861d28568c3b6ffc97f4f3c1d3af65a703ec12966420503d9 (SHA256) - Hash of email.png used in the phishing kit