Forget MFA fatigue, attackers are exploiting ‘click tolerance’ to trick users into infecting themselves with malware

Threat actors are exploiting users’ familiarity with verification tests to trick them into loading malware onto their systems, new research has warned.

A report from HP Wolf Security highlighted multiple threat campaigns where hackers took advantage of the fact users are forced to jump through a growing number of hoops to prove they are a legitimate user.

The report describes this trend as ‘click tolerance’, where the prevalence of authentication protocols has led to users being accustomed to follow steps given to them.

In the cases observed by HP, the attackers used fake CAPTCHAs to redirect users to attacker-controlled sites which prompted them into completing a number of fake authentication steps.

As users progress through these steps, the website copies malicious code to their clipboard and subsequently prompts the victim to press a number of shortcuts that open a ‘run’ dialog and execute the code directly on their system.

Speaking to ITPro , Ian Pratt, global head of security at HP, said attacks like this are not necessarily new but this campaign stood out as it actually gets the victim to infect themselves, which helps the attackers bypass traditional security products.

“It’s certainly not the first time it’s been done but it’s been done really well and it’s being done at a scale we haven’t seen before,” he noted.

“It’s a really good way of bypassing a lot of security products because effectively the user typed it into the run box. It’s not like they downloaded a script. There was no file that the antivirus could look at and make a decision about. They just hit CTRL + V and it ran.”

What happens after you click

Much like previous social engineering tactics that relied on MFA fatigue to steal user’s one time passcodes (OTPS), this campaign illustrates how additional security protections also breeds new types of complacency attackers can exploit.

Pratt said this campaign relies on the idea that users are used to completing tedious authentication measures and often can’t distinguish between legitimate procedures and malicious ones.

“People are being trained that sometimes a screen is going to appear and then you’re going to have to click through it. Maybe you’ll be logging in, maybe it's just but people do it without thinking now and attackers are exploiting that with these fake CAPTCHAs.”

He argued that this has laid bare an obvious shortcoming in employee security training, noting that it’s important phishing training and other security awareness programs put more emphasis on what users do after they fall for the initial deception in the attack chain.

“I think that the most important part of phishing training is going forwards… what they should be adding to what they’re doing is that it’s actually what happens after you click that’s most important,” he explained.

“After you clicked on that thing, was it what you expected, was the content correct. Did anything seem off at that point? The most important thing you can do is report it because we’re seeing a lot of effort being put into the lures but not necessarily a lot of effort being put into the thing that you can get taken to, often it will be completely irrelevant content or a command shell flashes up on your screen.

“Anything suspicious like that, that’s the best opportunity of spotting that something’s gone wrong and then to disconnect your laptop from the network and go and call someone. That’s the big one.”

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