Description

Identifies messages that resemble credential theft, originating from Xero. Xero infrastrcture abuse has been observed recently to send phishing attacks.

References

No references.

Sublime Security
Created May 9th, 2025 • Last updated Nov 3rd, 2025
Source
type.inbound
and sender.email.email == "messaging-service@post.xero.com"
and 
// there are external links (not org or xero domains)
length(filter(body.links,
              .href_url.domain.domain not in $org_domains
              and .href_url.domain.root_domain not in ("xero.com", )
       )
) > 0
and (
  any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).intents,
      .name == "cred_theft" and .confidence == "high"
  )
  // subject match when cred_theft doesn't match
  // high confidence observed subject intros in the format of "Urgent Thing: ..."
  or regex.icontains(subject.subject,
                     '^(?:(?:Final|Last)?\s*Warning|(?:Final|Last|Legal|Critical|Content Violation)?\s*(?:Alert|Noti(?:ce|fication))|Appeal Required|Time.Sensitive|Critical.Alert|Important|Copyright Issue)\s*:\s*'
  )
  or any(ml.logo_detect(file.message_screenshot()).brands,
         .name in ("Facebook", "Meta", "Instagram")
         and .confidence in ("medium", "high")
  )
  // any of the links are for newly registered domains
  or any(filter(body.links,
                .href_url.domain.domain not in $org_domains
                and .href_url.domain.root_domain not in ("xero.com")
         ),
         network.whois(.href_url.domain).days_old < 30
  )
  or (
    any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).topics,
        .name in ("B2B Cold Outreach", "Professional and Career Development")
        and .confidence != "low"
    )
  )
  // sender display name or subject contains confusables
  or (
    sender.display_name != strings.replace_confusables(sender.display_name)
    or subject.subject != strings.replace_confusables(subject.subject)
  )
  // IP pool appears to be tagged by Xero via Mailgun
  // https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052184214-IP-Pools
  or any(headers.hops,
         any(.fields,
             .name == "X-Mailgun-Sending-Ip-Pool-Name"
             and .value == "High Risk Pool"
         )
  )
)
and (
  ( // sender domain matches no body domains
    length(body.links) > 0
    and all(body.links,
            .href_url.domain.root_domain not in ("xero.com", )
            or .href_url.domain.root_domain is null
    )
  )
  // link contains email address
  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)
                 )
                 // cloudflare turnstile or phishing warning page
                 or strings.icontains(ml.link_analysis(., mode="aggressive").final_dom.display_text,
                                      "cloudflare"
                 )
         )
  )
  or regex.icontains(subject.subject, "termination.*notice")
  or any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).entities,
         .name in ("sender", "org")
         and regex.icontains(.text, 'Recruitment|staffing|\bhr\b')
  )
)
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