Attachment: Encrypted PDF with credential theft body
Attached PDF is encrypted, and email body contains credential theft language. Seen in-the-wild impersonating e-fax services.
Sublime rule (View on GitHub)
1name: "Attachment: Encrypted PDF with credential theft body"
2description: "Attached PDF is encrypted, and email body contains credential theft language. Seen in-the-wild impersonating e-fax services."
3type: "rule"
4severity: "medium"
5source: |
6 type.inbound
7 and any(filter(attachments, .file_type == "pdf"),
8 any(file.explode(.),
9 any(.scan.exiftool.fields, .key == "Encryption")
10 or (
11 .scan.entropy.entropy > 7
12 and any(.scan.strings.strings, strings.icontains(., "/Encrypt"))
13 )
14 )
15 and (
16 // Encrypted PDFs do not have child nodes with any data
17 all(filter(file.explode(.), .depth > 0), .size == 0)
18 // if we cracked the password, it will have child objects
19 or (
20 any(file.explode(.), 'pdf_encryption_dict' in .flavors.yara)
21 and any(file.explode(.),
22 .scan.encrypted_pdf.cracked_password is not null
23 )
24 )
25 )
26 )
27 and (
28 any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).intents,
29 .name == "cred_theft" and .confidence in ("medium", "high")
30 )
31 or any(ml.nlu_classifier(beta.ocr(file.message_screenshot()).text).intents,
32 .name == "cred_theft" and .confidence in ("medium", "high")
33 )
34 or regex.icontains(body.current_thread.text,
35 'PDF\s*(?:Access|Preview|Unlock|Decrypt|pass(?:code|word))',
36 '(Access|Preview|Unlock|Decrypt|Pass)\s*(?:word|code)\s*(?:\S+\s+){0,3}PDF\s*is?\s*:',
37 'Th(?:is|e)\s+(?:file|document|pdf)\s+is\s+(?:pin|password)[-\s]?\s*protected[[:punct:]]\s*The\s+p(?:in|assword)\s+is\s*:?',
38 '(?:Access|Preview|Unlock|Decrypt)\s+(?:\S+\s+){0,3}(?:PDF|statement)(?:\S+\s+){0,3}(?:pass(?:word|code)|\s*with\s+\S+)',
39 'The\s+(?:file|document|pdf|attachment)\s+(?:pass(?:code|word)|access\s*code)\s+is\s*'
40 )
41 or (
42 (
43 length(body.current_thread.text) <= 10
44 or (body.current_thread.text is null)
45 )
46 and any(body.previous_threads,
47 regex.icontains(.text,
48 'PDF\s*(?:Access|Preview|Unlock|Decrypt|pass(?:code|word))',
49 '(Access|Preview|Unlock|Decrypt|Pass)\s*(?:word|code)\s*(?:\S+\s+){0,3}PDF\s*is?\s*:',
50 'Th(?:is|e)\s+(?:file|document|pdf)\s+is\s+(?:pin|password)[-\s]?\s*protected[[:punct:]]\s*The\s+p(?:in|assword)\s+is\s*:?',
51 '(?:Access|Preview|Unlock|Decrypt)\s+(?:\S+\s+){0,3}(?:PDF|statement)(?:\S+\s+){0,3}(?:pass(?:word|code)|\s*with\s+\S+)',
52 'The\s+(?:file|document|pdf|attachment)\s+(?:pass(?:code|word)|access\s*code)\s+is\s*'
53 )
54 )
55 )
56 )
57 // not forwards/replies
58 and not (
59 (length(headers.references) > 0 or headers.in_reply_to is not null)
60 and (subject.is_forward or subject.is_reply)
61 and length(body.previous_threads) >= 1
62 )
63 and (
64 (
65 profile.by_sender_email().prevalence in ("new", "outlier")
66 and not profile.by_sender_email().solicited
67 )
68 or (
69 profile.by_sender_email().any_messages_malicious_or_spam
70 and not profile.by_sender_email().any_messages_benign
71 )
72 or (
73 length(recipients.to) == 0
74 or all(recipients.to,
75 strings.ilike(.display_name, "undisclosed?recipients")
76 )
77 )
78 or (
79 length(recipients.to) == 1
80 and any(recipients.to, .email.email == sender.email.email)
81 )
82 )
83 // negate highly trusted sender domains unless they fail DMARC authentication
84 and (
85 (
86 sender.email.domain.root_domain in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
87 and not headers.auth_summary.dmarc.pass
88 )
89 or sender.email.domain.root_domain not in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
90 )
91attack_types:
92 - "Credential Phishing"
93tactics_and_techniques:
94 - "Encryption"
95 - "Evasion"
96 - "PDF"
97 - "Social engineering"
98detection_methods:
99 - "Content analysis"
100 - "Exif analysis"
101 - "File analysis"
102 - "Natural Language Understanding"
103 - "Sender analysis"
104id: "c9596c9a-0465-5364-8523-542e6d25a8f7"