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ATTACKERS HIJACK FACEBOOK PAGES, PROMOTE MALICIOUS AI PHOTO EDITORATTACKERS
HIJACK FACEBOOK PAGES, PROMOTE MALICIOUS AI PHOTO EDITOR

A malvertising campaign uses phishing to steal legitimate account pages, with
the endgame of delivering the Lumma stealer.

Elizabeth Montalbano, Contributing Writer

August 1, 2024

3 Min Read
Source: Hocus Focus Studio via iStock


Attackers are hijacking pages on Facebook to lure victims into downloading a
legitimate artificial intelligence (AI) photo editor, but then serving up a
widely distributed infostealer to rob users of their credentials instead.

The malvertising campaign, discovered by researchers at Trend Micro, exploits
the popularity of AI and combines a variety of popular threat tactics, including
phishing, social engineering, and the use a legitimate utility in a malicious
way. The ultimate payload is the Lumma stealer, which targets sensitive
information, including user credentials, system details, browser data, and
extensions.

The attack hinges on the abuse of paid Facebook promotions, which attackers have
leveraged to lure users into engagement and ultimately deliver malware, the
researchers noted in a blog post today.

“Once the attacker gains control of the page, ads are posted promoting the AI
photo editor, leading victims to download an endpoint management utility
disguised as the photo editor,” Trend Micro threat researcher Jaromir Horejsi
wrote.

Attackers also are taking advantage of the current attention on AI technology
and tools associated with it by using these tools "as lures for malicious
activities, which includes phishing scams, deepfakes, and automated attacks," he
wrote.

So far, the malicious package associated with the campaign has generated about
16,000 downloads on Windows and 1,200 on macOS. However, the macOS version
redirects to the Apple website instead of an attacker-controlled site,
suggesting that attackers are only targeting Windows users with the campaign.


PHISHING LEADS TO HIJACKED PAGES

A typical attack in the campaign starts before a potential victim even sees an
ad. Attackers begin by sending phishing messages to owners of the targeted
social media page to gain control of the page for their own malicious use. The
sender account typically looks like an empty profile with randomly generated
user names.

The phishing links in the messages are sent either as direct links or
personalized link pages, such as linkup.top, bio.link, s.id, and linkbio.co,
among others. Sometimes attackers even abuse Facebook's open redirect URL for
these links to appear more legitimate.

If the page operator clicks on the links, they are presented with a screen to
verify their information with a "Business Support Center" for Meta developers.
Clicking on that screen's "Verify Your Information Here" link leads to a fake
account protection page, "which in several subsequent steps, asks users for the
information necessary to log in and take over their account, such as their phone
number, email address, birthday, and password," Horejsi explained.

After the target provides this info, the attacker steals the profile and begins
creating and posting malicious ads for an AI photo editor with links to a fake
domain that uses the name of a legitimate tool, such as Evoto.

"The fake photo editor web page looks very similar to the original one, which
helps in tricking the victim into thinking that they are downloading a photo
editor," Horejsi wrote.

However, what a user who takes the bait actually downloads is the freely
available ITarian endpoint management software. The attacker, using a series of
back-end processes controls, ultimately controls the victim's machine to
download the final payload, the Lumma stealer.


AVOIDING COMPROMISE

There are a number of ways that people can avoid falling victim to the campaign
and threats that abuse social media pages, which not only can compromise users
but also lead to secondary attacks via stolen credentials that act as initial
entry into enterprise infrastructure, according to Trend Micro.

Social-media users should enable multifactor authentication on all their
accounts to add an extra layer of protection against unauthorized access, as
well as regularly update and use strong, unique passwords across all accounts.

Organizations also should regularly practice education and awareness to let
their employees know of the dangers lurking on social media while accessing
corporate networks, as well as how to identify suspicious messages and links
associated with phishing attacks.

Finally, both organizations and individual users should monitor their accounts
for any unusual behavior, such as unexpected login attempts or changes to
account information. Organizations should employ some kind of detection and
response mechanisms.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Elizabeth Montalbano, Contributing Writer



Elizabeth Montalbano is a freelance writer, journalist, and therapeutic writing
mentor with more than 25 years of professional experience. Her areas of
expertise include technology, business, and culture. Elizabeth previously lived
and worked as a full-time journalist in Phoenix, San Francisco, and New York
City; she currently resides in a village on the southwest coast of Portugal. In
her free time, she enjoys surfing, hiking with her dogs, traveling, playing
music, yoga, and cooking.


See more from Elizabeth Montalbano, Contributing Writer
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