In this post, Unt 42 researchers look at the types of embedded payloads that attackers leverage to abuse Microsoft OneNote files. Our analysis of roughly 6,000 malicious OneNote samples from WildFire reveals that these samples have a phishing-like theme where attackers use one or more images to lure people into clicking or interacting with OneNote files.
The interaction then executes an embedded malicious payload. Since macros have been disabled by default in Office, attackers have turned to leveraging other Microsoft products for embedding malicious payloads. As a result, malicious OneNote files have grown in popularity.
Read more…
Source: Palo Alto Unit 42
Related:
- Roaming Mantis hits Android and iOS users in malware, phishing attacks
July 19, 2022
After hitting Germany, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, the US, and the U.K. the Roaming Mantis operation moved to targeting Android and iOS users in France, likely compromising tens of thousands of devices. Roaming Mantis is believed to be a financially-motivated threat actor that started targeting European users in February. In a recently observed campaign, the threat actor ...
- Hackers impersonate cybersecurity firms in callback phishing attacks
July 12, 2022
Hackers are impersonating well-known cybersecurity companies, such as CrowdStrike, in callback phishing emails to gain initial access to corporate networks. Most phishing campaigns embed links to landing pages that steal login credentials or emails that include malicious attachments to install malware. However, over the past year, threat actors have increasingly used “callback” phishing campaigns that impersonate well-known ...
- Clever phishing method bypasses MFA using Microsoft WebView2 apps
June 26, 2022
A clever, new phishing technique uses Microsoft Edge WebView2 applications to steal victim’s authentication cookies, allowing threat actors to bypass multi-factor authentication when logging into stolen accounts. With the large number of data breaches, remote access trojan attacks, and phishing campaigns, stolen login credentials have become abundant. However, the increasing adoption of multi-factor authentication (MFA) has made ...
- Europol: Phishing gang behind several million euros worth of losses busted in Belgium and the Netherlands
June 21, 2022
A cross-border operation, supported by Europol and involving the Belgian Police (Police Fédérale/Federale Politie) and the Dutch Police (Politie), resulted in the dismantling of an organised crime group involved in phishing, fraud, scams and money laundering. The action day on 21 June 2022 led to: 9 arrests in the Netherlands 24 house searches in the NetherlandsSeizures including firearms, ...
- Russian govt hackers hit Ukraine with Cobalt Strike, CredoMap malware
June 21, 2022
The Ukrainian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) is warning that Russian hacking groups are exploiting the Follina code execution vulnerability in new phishing campaigns to install the CredoMap malware and Cobalt Strike beacons. The APT28 hacking group is believed to be sending emails containing a malicious document name “Nuclear Terrorism A Very Real Threat.rtf.”. The threat ...
- Microsoft 365 credentials targeted in new fake voicemail campaign
June 20, 2022
A new phishing campaign has been targeting U.S. organizations in the military, security software, manufacturing supply chain, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors to steal Microsoft Office 365 and Outlook credentials. The operation is ongoing and the threat actor behind it uses fake voicemail notifications to lure victims into opening a malicious HTML attachment. According to researchers at cloud ...

