Pierluigi Paganini September 29, 2019

Adobe and Google Open Redirects Abused by Phishing Campaigns

Experts reported that phishing campaigns are leveraging Google and Adobe open redirects to bypass spam filters and redirect users to malicious sites.

Phishers are abusing Google and Adobe open redirects to bypass spam filters and redirect users to malicious sites.

Crooks abuse Google and Adobe services to create URLs that point to malicious websites that anyway are able to bypass security filters because they appear as legitimate URLs from trusted IT giants.

“Open redirectors take you from a Google URL to another website chosen by whoever constructed the link. Some members of the security community argue that the redirectors aid phishing, because users may be inclined to trust the mouse hover tooltip on a link and then fail to examine the address bar once the navigation takes place.“ reads the post published by Google.

“Our take on this is that tooltips are not a reliable security indicator, and can be tampered with in many ways; so, we invest in technologies to detect and alert users about phishing and abuse, but we generally hold that a small number of properly monitored offers fairly clear benefits and poses very little practical risk.”

An example of Google open redirect is https://www.google.com/url?q=[url] that could be abused by attackers.

“Phishing campaigns commonly utilize open redirects from well known companies as they feel users will be more likely to click on a link if it belongs to Google or Adobe.” reported BleepingComputer.

Below an example of a phishing message that uses Google open redirect that points to a fake login page.

In a similar way, attackers could abuse the Adobe redirect service in phishing campaigns.

Experts suggest administrators and users remain vigilant on open redirects.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – google open redirects, phishing)

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