• Sublime Core Feed
Low Severity

Brand Impersonation: Meta and Subsidiaries

Labels

Credential Phishing
Impersonation: Brand
Lookalike domain
Social engineering
Header analysis
Sender analysis

Description

Impersonation of Meta or Meta's subsidiaries Facebook and Instagram.

References

Sublime Security
Created Aug 17th, 2023 • Last updated Jul 9th, 2025
Feed Source
Sublime Core Feed
Source
GitHub
type.inbound
and (
  // sender display name is a strong enough indicator
  // that it can be used without any other impersonation logic
  (
    regex.icontains(sender.display_name,
                  'facebook ?ads',
                  'facebook ?business',
                  'meta ?account',
                  'meta ?support',
                  'meta ?business',
                  'meta ?for ?business',
                  'meta ?policy',
                  'page ?ads ?support',
                  'Instagram ?Not',
                  'Instagram ?Policies',
                  'Instagram ?Report',
                  'Instagram ?Helpdesk',
                  'Instagram ?Support',
                  'Ads ?Team'
    )
    or strings.ilevenshtein(sender.display_name, 'facebook ads') <= 2
    or strings.ilevenshtein(sender.display_name, 'facebook business') <= 2
    or (
      strings.levenshtein(sender.display_name, 'Meta Support') <= 2
      // negation for Zeta Support
      and not (
        sender.display_name == "Zeta Support"
        and sender.email.domain.root_domain == 'zetaglobal.net'
      )
    )
    or strings.ilike(sender.email.domain.domain, '*facebook*')
    or strings.ilike(sender.email.local_part,
                     "*instagramlive*",
                     "*facebooksupport*"
    )
  )
  // the use of these keywords (facebook, meta, meta.*support)
  // or the levenshtein distance to facebook
  // are less strong and thus need to be combined with logo detection or nlu 
  or (
    (
      (
        regex.icontains(sender.display_name,
                        '\bf[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*a[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*c[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*e[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*b[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*o[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*o[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*k[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*\b',
                        '\bm[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*e[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*t[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*a[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*\b',
                        '\bm[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*e[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*t[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*a[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*.*support',
                        '\binstagr(am)?\b'
        )
        // negate metageek.com
        and not (
          strings.icontains(sender.display_name, 'MetaGeek Support')
          and sender.email.domain.root_domain == "metageek.com"
        )
      )
      or strings.ilevenshtein(sender.display_name, 'facebook') <= 2
    )
    and (
      any(ml.logo_detect(beta.message_screenshot()).brands,
          .name in ("Facebook", "Meta", "Instagram", "Threads")
      )
      or any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).intents,
             .name in ("cred_theft", "callback_scam", "steal_pii")
             and .confidence in ("medium", "high")
      )
     or regex.icontains(body.plain.raw, "(violation|infringe|copyright)")
     or any(body.links, .href_url.domain.root_domain == "rebrand.ly")
    )
  )
  // salesforce sender combined with logo detection and nlu is enough
  or (
    sender.email.domain.root_domain == "salesforce.com"
    and any(ml.logo_detect(beta.message_screenshot()).brands,
            .name in ("Facebook", "Meta", "Instagram", "Threads")
    )
    and any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).intents,
            .name in ("cred_theft", "callback_scam", "steal_pii")
            and .confidence in ("medium", "high")
    )
  )
  or 
  // or the body contains a facebook/meta footer with the address citing "community support" 
  (
    regex.icontains(body.current_thread.text,
                    '(1\s+(Facebook|Meta)?\s*Way|1601\s+Willow\s+Rd?).*Menlo\s+Park.*CA.*94025'
    )
    // and it contains a link to spawn a chat with facebook - this is not the way support operates
    and (
      any(body.links,
          strings.ends_with(.href_url.domain.domain, 'facebook.com')
          and strings.starts_with(.href_url.path, '/msg/')
      )
      or (
        any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).intents,
            .name in ("cred_theft", "callback_scam", "steal_pii")
            and .confidence in ("high")
        )
      )
      or any(recipients.to,
             .email.domain.valid
             and any(body.links,
                     strings.icontains(.href_url.url, ..email.email)
                     or any(beta.scan_base64(.href_url.url,
                                             format="url",
                                             ignore_padding=true
                            ),
                            strings.icontains(., ...email.email)
                     )
                     or any(beta.scan_base64(.href_url.fragment,
                                             ignore_padding=true
                            ),
                            strings.icontains(., ...email.email)
                     )
             )
      )
    )
  )
  // we've seen advertising "advice/recommendations"
  or (
    all(beta.ml_topic(body.current_thread.text).topics,
        .name in ("Advertising and Promotions", "Reminders and Notifications")
    )
    // Meta mention
    and (
      any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).entities,
          .name == "org"
          and strings.icontains(.text, 'Community Guidelines')
      )
      or regex.icontains(body.current_thread.text,
                         '(1\s+(Facebook|Meta)?\s*Way|1601\s+Willow\s+Rd?).*Menlo\s+Park.*CA.*94025'
      )
    )
    and any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).entities,
            .name == "urgency"
    )
  )
)
and sender.email.domain.root_domain not in~ (
  'facebook.com',
  'facebookmail.com',
  'eventsatfacebook.com',
  'facebookenterprise.com',
  'meta.com',
  'metamail.com',
  'instagram.com',
  'medallia.com',
  'fbworkmail.com',
  'workplace.com',
  'capterra.com', // they mention "Community Guidelines"
  'facebookblueprint.com'
)
// negate metaenterprise links
and not any(headers.reply_to, .email.email == "noreply@facebookmail.com")

// negate highly trusted sender domains unless they fail DMARC authentication
and (
  (
    sender.email.domain.root_domain in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
    and not headers.auth_summary.dmarc.pass
  )
  or sender.email.domain.root_domain not in $high_trust_sender_root_domains

  // salesforce has been abused for meta phishing campaigns repeatedly 
  or sender.email.domain.root_domain == "salesforce.com"
)
and not profile.by_sender().any_messages_benign
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