• Sublime Core Feed
Medium Severity

Credential phishing: Fake password expiration from new and unsolicited sender

Description

This rule looks for password expiration verbiage in the subject and body. Requiring between 1 - 9 links, a short body, and NLU in addition to statically specified term anchors. High trust senders are also negated.

References

No references.

Sublime Security
Created May 8th, 2024 • Last updated Oct 8th, 2025
Source
type.inbound

// few links which are not in $org_domains
and 0 < length(filter(body.links, .href_url.domain.domain not in $org_domains)) <= 10

// no attachments or suspicious attachment
and (
  length(attachments) == 0
  or any(filter(attachments, .file_type in ("pdf", "doc", "docx")),
         any(file.explode(.),
             .scan.entropy.entropy > 7 and length(.scan.ocr.raw) < 20
         )
  )
  // or there are duplicate pdfs in name 
  or (
    length(filter(attachments, .file_type == "pdf")) > length(distinct(filter(attachments,
                                                                              .file_type == "pdf"
                                                                       ),
                                                                       .file_name
                                                              )
    )
    or 
    // all PDFs are the same MD5
    length(distinct(filter(attachments, .file_type == "pdf"), .md5)) == 1
    // the attachments are all images and not too many attachments
    or (
      all(attachments, .file_type in $file_types_images)
      and 0 < length(attachments) < 6
      // any of those attachments are Microsoft branded
      and any(attachments,
              any(ml.logo_detect(.).brands,
                  (
                    strings.istarts_with(.name, "Microsoft")
                    or .name == "Generic Webmail"
                  )
                  and .confidence == "high"
              )
              // it's just an icon
              or length(beta.ocr(.).text) < 20
              or beta.parse_exif(.).image_height == beta.parse_exif(.).image_width
      )
    )
  )
)

// body contains expire, expiration, loose, lose 
and (
  regex.icontains(body.current_thread.text,
                  '(expir(e(d|s)?|ation|s)?|\blo(o)?se\b|(?:offices?|microsoft).365|re.{0,3}confirm)|due for update'
  )
  and not strings.icontains(body.current_thread.text, 'link expires in ')
)
and (
  // subject or body contains account or access
  any([subject.subject, body.current_thread.text],
      regex.icontains(., "account|access|your email|mailbox")
  )
  // suspicious use of recipients email address
  or any(recipients.to,
         any([subject.subject, body.current_thread.text],
             strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(.),
                               ..email.local_part
             )
             or strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(.), ..email.email)
         )
  )
)

// subject or body must contains password
and any([
          strings.replace_confusables(subject.subject),
          strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text)
        ],
        regex.icontains(., '\bpassword\b', '\bmulti.?factor\b')
)
and (
  any(ml.nlu_classifier(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text)).intents,
      .name == "cred_theft" and .confidence == "high"
  )
  or 3 of (
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'password'),
      regex.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'password\s*(?:\w+\s+){0,4}\s*reconfirm'),
      regex.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'keep\s*(?:\w+\s+){0,4}\s*password'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'password is due'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'expiration'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'expire'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'expiring'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'kindly'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'renew'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'review'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'click below'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'kicked out'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'required now'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'immediate action'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'security update'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'blocked'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'locked'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'interruption'),
      strings.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(body.current_thread.text), 'action is not taken'),

  )
)

// body length between 200 and 2000
and (
  200 < length(body.current_thread.text) < 2000

  // excessive whitespace
  or (
    regex.icontains(body.html.raw, '(?:(?:<br\s*/?>\s*){20,}|\n{20,})')
    or regex.icontains(body.html.raw, '(?:<p[^>]*>\s*<br\s*/?>\s*</p>\s*){30,}')
    or regex.icontains(body.html.raw,
                       '(?:<p class=".*?"><span style=".*?"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\s*){30,}'
    )
    or regex.icontains(body.html.raw, '(?:<p>\s*&nbsp;\s*</p>\s*){7,}')
    or regex.icontains(body.html.raw, '(?:<p>\s*&nbsp;\s*</p>\s*<br>\s*){7,}')
    or regex.icontains(body.html.raw,
                       '(?:<p[^>]*>\s*&nbsp;\s*<br>\s*</p>\s*){5,}'
    )
    or regex.icontains(body.html.raw, '(?:<p[^>]*>&nbsp;</p>\s*){7,}')
  )
)

// a body link does not match the sender domain
and any(body.links,
        (
          .href_url.domain.root_domain != sender.email.domain.root_domain
          // or link URL contains an IPv4 address
          or (
            .href_url.domain.root_domain is null
            and regex.icontains(.href_url.url, '(\d{1,3}.){3}\d{1,3}')
          )
        )
        and .href_url.domain.root_domain not in $org_domains
)

// and no false positives and not solicited
and (
  (
    not profile.by_sender_email().any_messages_benign
    and not profile.by_sender_email().solicited
  )
  or (
    sender.email.domain.domain in $org_domains
    and not headers.auth_summary.spf.pass
  )
)

// not a reply
and (
  length(headers.references) == 0
  or not any(headers.hops, any(.fields, strings.ilike(.name, "In-Reply-To")))
)

// negate highly trusted sender domains unless they fail DMARC authentication
and (
  (
    sender.email.domain.root_domain in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
    and (
      any(distinct(headers.hops, .authentication_results.dmarc is not null),
          strings.ilike(.authentication_results.dmarc, "*fail")
      )
    )
  )
  or sender.email.domain.root_domain not in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
)
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