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High Severity

Attachment: Callback Phishing solicitation via pdf file

Labels

Callback Phishing
Evasion
Free email provider
Out of band pivot
PDF
Social engineering
Exif analysis
File analysis
Optical Character Recognition
Sender analysis

Description

A fraudulent invoice/receipt found in a pdf attachment. Callback Phishing is an attempt by an attacker to solicit the victim (recipient) to call a phone number. The resulting interaction could lead to a multitude of attacks ranging from Financial theft, Remote Access Trojan (RAT) Installation or Ransomware Deployment.

References

No references.

Sublime Security
Created Aug 17th, 2023 • Last updated Feb 26th, 2025
Feed Source
Sublime Core Feed
Source
GitHub
type.inbound
and (
  not profile.by_sender().solicited
  or (
    profile.by_sender().any_messages_malicious_or_spam
    and not profile.by_sender().any_false_positives
  )
)

// single attachment
and length(attachments) == 1

// sender is freemail
and sender.email.domain.root_domain in $free_email_providers

// the attachment is a pdf with less than 3 pages, and at least 60 ocr chars
and any(attachments,
        (
          .file_extension == "pdf"
          // get the length of the attached pdf
          and any(file.explode(.), .depth == 0 and .scan.exiftool.page_count < 3)
          // check that any _single_ result in the file.explode matches these conditions
          // a second file.explode is required because the OCR is generated at a different depth within 
          // the file.explode results
          and (
            any(file.explode(.),
                length(.scan.ocr.raw) > 60
                // 4 of the following strings are found        
                and 4 of (
                  // this section is synced with attachment_callback_phish_with_pdf.yml and body_callback_phishing_no_attachment.yml
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "purchase"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "payment"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "transaction"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "subscription"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "antivirus"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "order"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "support"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "help line"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "receipt"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "invoice"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "call"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "helpdesk"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "cancel"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "renew"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "refund"),
                  regex.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "(?:reach|contact) us at"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "+1"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "amount"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "charged"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "crypto"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "wallet address"),
                  regex.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, '\$\d{3}\.\d{2}\b'),
                  regex.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw,
                                  '(\+[ilo0-9]|1.(\()?[ilo0-9]{3}(\))?\D[ilo0-9]{3}\D[ilo0-9]{4})',
                                  '\+?([ilo0-9]{1,2})?\s?\(?\d{3}\)?[\s\.\-⋅]{0,5}[ilo0-9]{3}[\s\.\-⋅]{0,5}[ilo0-9]{4}'
                  ),
                )
                and (
                  // this section is synced with attachment_callback_phish_with_img.yml and body_callback_phishing_no_attachment.yml
                  regex.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw,
                                  '(p.{0,3}a.{0,3}y.{0,3}p.{0,3}a.{0,3}l|ma?c.?fee|n[o0]rt[o0]n|geek.{0,5}squad|ebay|symantec|best buy|lifel[o0]c|secure anywhere|starz|utilities premium|pc security|at&t)'
                  )
                  // suspicious attachment name from the attachment object not file.explode() output
                  or regex.icontains(..file_name, 'INV(?:_|\s)?\d+(.pdf)$')
                )
                // Negate bank statements
                and not (
                  2 of (
                    strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "opening balance"),
                    strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "closing balance"),
                    strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "direct debit"),
                    strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "interest"),
                    strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "account balance"),
                  )
                )
            )
            // this section is synced with attachment_callback_phish_with_img.yml and body_callback_phishing_no_attachment.yml
            or any(ml.logo_detect(.).brands,
                   .name in (
                     "PayPal",
                     "Norton",
                     "GeekSquad",
                     "Ebay",
                     "McAfee",
                     "AT&T"
                   )
            )
          )
        )
)
and (
  (
    (
      length(headers.references) > 0
      or not any(headers.hops,
                 any(.fields, strings.ilike(.name, "In-Reply-To"))
      )
    )
    and not (
      (
        strings.istarts_with(subject.subject, "RE:")
        or strings.istarts_with(subject.subject, "RES:")
        or strings.istarts_with(subject.subject, "R:")
        or strings.istarts_with(subject.subject, "ODG:")
        or strings.istarts_with(subject.subject, "答复:")
        or strings.istarts_with(subject.subject, "AW:")
        or strings.istarts_with(subject.subject, "TR:")
        or strings.istarts_with(subject.subject, "FWD:")
        or regex.imatch(subject.subject,
                        '(\[[^\]]+\]\s?){0,3}(re|fwd?|automat.*)\s?:.*'
        )
      )
    )
  )
  or (length(headers.references) == 0 or length(body.current_thread.text) < 10)
)
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