PhishingBy

K. Nirmala07A41A0529

Topics• Phishing Basics• Serious Problem• APWG Regular Reports• Recent Examples • Phishing Harms Firms• Problem Increasing• Anti-Phishing Steps • Public Education• Possible Solutions

Phishing Basics (1)

• Pronounced "fishing" • Scam to steal valuable information such as credit

cards, social security numbers, user IDs and passwords.

• Also known as "brand spoofing" • Official-looking e-mail sent to potential victims – Pretends to be from their ISP, retail store, etc., – Due to internal accounting errors or some other

pretext, certain information must be updated to continue the service.

Phishing Basics (2)• Link in e-mail message directs the user to a Web page

– Asks for financial information– Page looks genuine

• Easy to fake valid Web site• Any HTML page on the real Web can be copied and modified

• E-mails sent to people on selected lists or to any list– Some % will actually have account

• “Phishing kit" – Set of software tools – Help novice phisher imitate target Web site – Make mass mailings– May include lists of e-mail addresses

Serious Problem“Illegal access to checking accounts, often gained via phishing scams, has become the fastest-growing form of consumer theft in the United States, accounting for a staggering $2.4 billion in fraud in the previous 12 months.”

APWG Regular ReportsPhishing Activity Trends Report Oct 2004 1142: Number of active phishing sites reported in Oct

2004 25%: Average monthly growth rate in phishing sites

July through Oct 44: # brands hijacked Oct 6: # brands comprising top 80% of brands hijacked by

phishing campaigns in Oct USA: country hosting most phishing Websites 20%: contain some form of the target name in URL 63%: no hostname, just IP address 6 days: average time online for phishing site

http://www.antiphishing.org/APWG_Phishing_Activity_Report-Oct2004.pdf

Recent Examples of AttacksFrom APWG

Nov 15 - People's Bank - 'New Mail from People' Nov 10 - Citibank - 'Citibank Alert Service' Nov 9 - Paypal - 'Your Account Will Be Suspended' Nov 2 - Sovereign Bank - 'Sovereign Bank

Unauthorized Account Access' Nov 1 - Citibank - 'Security Alert on Microsoft

Internet Explorer' Oct 29 - eBay - 'TKO NOTICE: Verify Your Identity' Oct 28 - Verizon - 'Update your Verizon billing

profile' Oct 27 - Washington Mutual Bank - 'Washington

Mutual Bank : Notification of Washington Mutual Internet Banking Account‘

People’s Bank

Not the proper

domain for peoples.com

Citibank (Nov 10)

Links tohttp://82.90.165.65/

citi

PayPal (1)

PayPal (2)Actually links to

http://212.45.13.185/.paypal/

index.php

Citibank (Nov 1)

Links tohttp://200.189.70.90/citi/

eBay

http://signin-ebay.com-cgi-bin.tk/

eBaydll.php

APWG (antiphishing.org)

• Anti-Phishing Working Group

Phishing Harms Firms Harmful at many levels

Threatens effective communicationUndermines goodwill and trust

CustomersDirect harm from stolen IDs, passwordsCould perceive business as not taking

adequate steps to protect users Diminishes value of brand

Could affect shareholdersPossibility of liability for failure to exercise

due diligence in protecting trademark

Based in part on material that iscopyright © 2004 Don Holden, CISSPUsed with permission (and thanks).

Problem Increasing

Get a Job – and Lose Money

• Free training offer is latest spam scam– By John Leyden– Published Tuesday 2nd November 2004 12:35 GMT– http://www.theregister.com/2004/11/02/

training_spam_scam/

• Apply for “training” and “job” at Credit Suisse• Fill in banking details (!)• Lose control over your financial information to

criminals

Spoofed Page and Address Bar

Based on a slide copyright © 2004 Don Holden, CISSPUsed with permission (and thanks).

Not the realaddress bar

See http://www.antiphishing.org/news/03-31-04_Alert-FakeAddressBar.html

Spoofed Address Bar Problem

JavaScript device replaces address barAllows complete controlCan show one URL while going to anotherViewing source code for page does NOT show Java

source code Implications

With address bar installed, could track other sites visited

Could do a man-in–the-middle attack to see everything entered

Recent Alert

• @RISK: Consensus Security Vulnerability Alert 3(45) Nov 14, 2004– From SANS Institute

• Internet Explorer Phishing Vulnerability– Attacker can construct malicious hyperlink– Hundreds of attacks reported per week– Object element embedded in hyperlink• Can embed flash movie or other executable code in a

hyperlink

Tabbed Browser Problems (1) Phishing for dummies: hook, line and sinker

By Scott Granneman, SecurityFocus Published Tuesday 2nd November 2004 14:55 GMT http://www.theregister.com/2004/11/02/phishing_tabbe

d_browsers/

Vulnerabilities in many “tabbed” browsers that allow easy switch from one window to another Mozilla 1.7.3 Mozilla Firefox 0.10.1 Camino 0.8 Opera 7.54 Konqueror 3.2.2-6 Netscape 7.2 Avant Browser 9.02 build 101 and 10.0 build 029 Maxthon (MyIE2) 1.1.039

Tabbed Browser Problems (2)

• Dialog box can be spawned in active window from connection to an inactive window– E.g., visit PayPal– Get popup box to “verify” password– Actually comes from rogue site in different window

• Possibility of diverting data into a form on a different window for a malicious Website– Would try to enter data into form on legitimate site– Data would actually go somewhere else

Anti-Phishing Steps

Proclaim, Protect, Pursue• Proclaim in all correspondence the use of an

official mark (e.g. TrustedSender stamp)• Protect all messages, Web pages with the

mark• Pursue all impostors – actively seek reports of

phishing

Public Education

Use digitally-signed documents ONLYDon’t release unsigned documentsGet consumers used to idea that an unsigned

document is an untrustworthy document Use public education campaigns

“No one will ever ask you to confirm your password”

“Don’t believe alerts that address you as ‘Dear Customer.’”

Link to APWG documents; e.g.,http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs.html

Possible Solutions

• Strong Website authentication• Mail server authentication• Digitally-signed e-mail with desktop

verification• Digitally-signed e-mail with gateway

verification

AWPG: Proposed Solutions to Address the Threat of Email Spoofing Scams

APWG Resources Page

CloudMark’s Community Approach

• Cloud mark Safety Bar– http://www.cloudmark.com/ – Works for Outlook and Outlook Express

• Community members report new spam or fraud at push of button– Information sent worldwide to improve blocking

• Anti-fraudster measures– Reliability of reports affects credibility of reporter– Spammers and fraudsters would lose credibility

fast

Cloudmark SafetyBar (2)

QUERIES ?

THANQ