Payload Trends in Malicious OneNote Samples


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


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • IKEA email systems hit by ongoing cyberattack

    November 26, 2021

    IKEA is battling an ongoing cyberattack where threat actors are targeting employees in internal phishing attacks using stolen reply-chain emails. A reply-chain email attack is when threat actors steal legitimate corporate email and then reply to them with links to malicious documents that install malware on recipients’ devices. As the reply-chain emails are legitimate emails from a ...

  • Spear-Phishing Campaign Exploits Glitch Platform to Steal Credentials

    November 18, 2021

    A long-term spear-phishing campaign is targeting employees of major corporations with emails containing PDFs that link to short-lived Glitch apps hosting credential-harvesting SharePoint phishing pages, researchers have found. Researchers from DomainTools discovered the suspicious PDFs – which themselves do not include malicious content – back in July, wrote Senior Security Researcher Chad Anderson, in a report ...

  • BlackMatter ransomware gang says it’s disbanding – again – after Ukraine arrests

    November 3, 2021

    A member of the BlackMatter (aka Darkside) ransomware gang has publicly claimed the extortionists are shutting down, causing much excitement within the infosec world. A Russian-language message reportedly posted on a forum used by ransomware criminals is said to have announced BlackMatter’s second disappearance of 2021, the gang previously pulling a disappearing act under their former ...

  • Spam and phishing in Q3 2021

    November 1, 2021

    This summer and early fall saw some major international sporting events. The delayed Euro 2020 soccer tournament was held in June and July, followed by the equally delayed Tokyo Olympics in August. Q3 2021 also featured several F1 Grand Prix races. There was no way that cybercriminals and profiteers could pass up such a golden ...

  • Office 365 Phishing Campaign Uses Kaspersky’s Amazon SES Token

    November 1, 2021

    A surge in spearphishing emails designed to steal Office 365 credentials were rigged to look like they came from a Kaspersky email address. In spite of coming from sender addresses such as [email protected], nobody at Kaspersky sent the phishing emails, the security company said in an advisory issued on Monday. Rather, the emails were sent with ...

  • Phishing-as-a-service operation uses double theft to boost profits

    September 22, 2021

    Microsoft says BulletProofLink, a large-scale phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) operation it spotted while investigating recent phishing attacks, is the driving force behind many phishing campaigns that have targeted many corporate organizations lately. The threat actor behind BulletProofLink (also known as BulletProftLink and Anthrax) provides cybercriminals with various services, ranging from selling phish kits and email templates to providing ...