Brand impersonation: Meta and subsidiaries
Impersonation of Meta or Meta's subsidiaries Facebook and Instagram.
Sublime rule (View on GitHub)
1name: "Brand impersonation: Meta and subsidiaries"
2description: |
3 Impersonation of Meta or Meta's subsidiaries Facebook and Instagram.
4references:
5 - "https://www.techrepublic.com/article/google-and-amazon-most-impersonated-brands-in-phishing-attacks/"
6type: "rule"
7severity: "medium"
8source: |
9 type.inbound
10 and (
11 // sender display name is a strong enough indicator
12 // that it can be used without any other impersonation logic
13 (
14 regex.icontains(sender.display_name,
15
16 // this regex looks for a commonly abused phrase starting with 'meta', potentially containing a version of the word 'verified', followed by phrases that have been observed in campaigns.
17 '\bm.?e.?t.?a\b.*(?:verif(?:y|i(?:cado|ed)))?.*\b(?:recruiting|certification|trust|safety|badge|alert|advertising|compliance|copyright|enforcement|intellectual|rights|account|help|support|service|business|policy|Vérifié|certify|inc|help[ -]?desk)\b',
18
19 // this regex also looks for a commonly abused phrase starting with 'meta', followed by a phrase, then 'team' with no separating spaces.
20 '\bm.?e.?t.?a(?:recruiting|pro|certification|trust|safety|badge|alert|advertising|compliance|copyright|enforcement|intellectual|rights|service|account|help|support|business|policy|ads)(?:team|support)',
21
22 // this regex is similar to the first in this section, but starts with facebook instead of meta
23 '\bf.?a.?c.?e.?b.?o.?o.?k\b.*(?:verif(?:y|i(?:cado|ed)))?.*\b(?:recruiting|ads[ -]?team|certification|trust|safety|badge|alert|advertising|compliance|copyright|enforcement|intellectual|rights|service|account|help|support|business|policy|Vérifié|certify|inc|help[ -]?desk)\b',
24 '^[a-z]+ from \bmeta$',
25 'page ?ads ?support',
26 'Instagram\s*(?:Not|Policies|Report|Helpdesk|Support)',
27 '\bMeta & Coursera',
28 'Compliance & Security',
29 'social.?media.?\b(?:master|expert|pro|guru)\b',
30 '\bmeta\b.?(?:social|skill|ads).?(?:star|set|expert)',
31 'noreply-(?:meta|fb).+',
32 '(?:meta|facebook|fb|instagram|ig)[-\s]verif',
33 'meta\S{0,10}center'
34 )
35 or (
36 regex.icontains(sender.display_name,
37 "f\u{200a}?a\u{200a}?c\u{200a}?e\u{200a}?b\u{200a}?o\u{200a}?o\u{200a}?k"
38 )
39 and not strings.icontains(sender.display_name, 'facebook')
40 )
41 or strings.contains(sender.display_name, "\u{24C2}")
42 or strings.ilevenshtein(sender.display_name, 'facebook ads') <= 2
43 or strings.ilevenshtein(sender.display_name, 'facebook business') <= 2
44 or strings.ilike(sender.email.domain.domain, '*facebook*', "ig-support*")
45 or strings.ilike(sender.email.local_part,
46 "*instagramlive*",
47 "*facebooksupport*"
48 )
49 or strings.icontains(sender.email.domain.subdomain, 'meta-')
50 or (
51 regex.icontains(body.current_thread.text, '©\s*(?:\d+)\s*meta\b')
52 and strings.count(body.current_thread.text, '©') == 1
53 )
54 or (
55 any(html.xpath(body.html, '//h2 | //h1').nodes,
56 regex.icontains(strings.replace_confusables(.display_text),
57 'meta\s+verified'
58 )
59 )
60 and any(body.current_thread.links,
61 .href_url.domain.root_domain in $free_subdomain_hosts
62 )
63 )
64 )
65 // the use of these keywords (facebook, instagram)
66 // or the levenshtein distance to facebook
67 // are less strong and thus need to be combined with logo detection or nlu
68 or (
69 (
70 regex.icontains(sender.display_name,
71 '\bf[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*a[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*c[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*e[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*b[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*o[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*o[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*k[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*\b',
72 '\binstagr(am)?\b',
73 '\bm[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*e[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*t[\p{Mn}\p{Cf}]*a\b'
74 )
75 or strings.ilevenshtein(sender.display_name, 'facebook') <= 2
76 or sender.email.email == 'noreply@appsheet.com'
77 )
78 and 2 of (
79 any(ml.logo_detect(file.message_screenshot()).brands,
80 .name in ("Facebook", "Meta", "Instagram", "Threads")
81 ),
82 any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).intents,
83 .name in ("cred_theft", "callback_scam", "steal_pii")
84 and .confidence in ("medium", "high")
85 ),
86 (
87 length(body.current_thread.text) < 2000
88 and regex.icontains(body.current_thread.text, "(?:violation|infringe)")
89 ),
90 regex.icontains(subject.base,
91 '\b(?:recruiting|permanently|locked|certification|trust|safety|badge|alert|advertising|compliance|copyright|enforcement|intellectual|rights|account|help|support|business|policy|verif(?:y|i(?:cado|ed))|Vérifié|Trademark|Misuse|Review|Violation|Warning|Restriction|Inappropriate|service|Content|multiple reports)\b'
92 ),
93 any(body.links,
94 .href_url.domain.root_domain in $self_service_creation_platform_domains
95 or .href_url.domain.root_domain in $free_file_hosts
96 or .href_url.domain.root_domain in $free_subdomain_hosts
97 or .href_url.domain.root_domain in $url_shorteners
98 ),
99 sender.email.domain.root_domain in $free_email_providers
100 )
101 )
102 // salesforce sender combined with logo detection and nlu is enough
103 or (
104 sender.email.domain.root_domain == "salesforce.com"
105 and any(ml.logo_detect(file.message_screenshot()).brands,
106 .name in ("Facebook", "Meta", "Instagram", "Threads")
107 )
108 and any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).intents,
109 .name in ("cred_theft", "callback_scam", "steal_pii")
110 and .confidence in ("medium", "high")
111 )
112 )
113 or
114 // or the body contains a facebook/meta footer with the address citing "community support"
115 (
116 (
117 regex.icontains(body.current_thread.text,
118 '(?:1\s+(?:Facebook|Hacker|Meta)?\s*Way|1601\s+Willow\s+Rd?).*Menlo\s+Park.*CA.*94025'
119 )
120 or (
121 regex.icontains(body.current_thread.text,
122 '(?:Security Team © Meta|Meta Support Team)'
123 )
124 )
125 )
126 // and it contains a link to spawn a chat with facebook - this is not the way support operates
127 and (
128 any(body.links,
129 strings.ends_with(.href_url.domain.domain, 'facebook.com')
130 and strings.starts_with(.href_url.path, '/msg/')
131 )
132 or (
133 any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).intents,
134 .name in ("cred_theft", "callback_scam", "steal_pii")
135 and .confidence in ("high")
136 )
137 )
138 or any(recipients.to,
139 .email.domain.valid
140 and any(body.links,
141 strings.icontains(.href_url.url, ..email.email)
142 or any(strings.scan_base64(.href_url.url,
143 format="url",
144 ignore_padding=true
145 ),
146 strings.icontains(., ...email.email)
147 )
148 or any(strings.scan_base64(.href_url.fragment,
149 ignore_padding=true
150 ),
151 strings.icontains(., ...email.email)
152 )
153 )
154 )
155 )
156 )
157 // we've seen advertising "advice/recommendations"
158 or (
159 all(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).topics,
160 .name in ("Advertising and Promotions", "Reminders and Notifications")
161 )
162 // Meta mention
163 and (
164 any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).entities,
165 .name == "org" and strings.icontains(.text, 'Community Guidelines')
166 )
167 or regex.icontains(body.current_thread.text,
168 '(1\s+(Facebook|Hacker|\bMeta\b)?\s*Way|1601\s+Willow\s+Rd?).*Menlo\s+Park.*CA.*94025'
169 )
170 )
171 and any(ml.nlu_classifier(body.current_thread.text).entities,
172 .name == "urgency"
173 )
174 )
175 or (
176 strings.icontains(body.current_thread.text, "Meta Professional Certificate")
177 and strings.icontains(body.current_thread.text, "Meta & Coursera Team")
178 // Add link validation
179 and any(body.links,
180 strings.icontains(.display_text, "coursera")
181 and .href_url.domain.root_domain != "coursera.org"
182 )
183 )
184 or 2 of (
185 strings.icontains(body.current_thread.text, 'Meta '),
186 strings.icontains(body.current_thread.text, '1602 Willow Road'),
187 strings.icontains(body.current_thread.text, 'Menlo Park, CA 91024'),
188 )
189 )
190 and sender.email.domain.root_domain not in~ (
191 'facebook.com',
192 'facebookmail.com',
193 'eventsatfacebook.com',
194 'facebookenterprise.com',
195 'meta.com',
196 'metamail.com',
197 'instagram.com',
198 'medallia.com',
199 'fbworkmail.com',
200 'workplace.com',
201 'capterra.com', // they mention "Community Guidelines"
202 'facebookblueprint.com',
203 'metaenterprisemail.com',
204 'pigfacebookstore.com.au', // unrelated domain but hitting on facebook
205 'metacompliance.com',
206 'metaprop.com', // unrelated domain but hitting on meta pro
207 'oakley.com', // meta intelligence glasses
208 'facebookuserprivacysettlement.com', // fb settlement website
209 'perceptyx.com', // ai employee engagement
210 'unroll.me', // unroll contains instagram logo
211 'har.com' // facebook ads management
212 )
213 // negate metaenterprise links
214 and not any(headers.reply_to, .email.email == "noreply@facebookmail.com")
215
216 // meta wiki renamer
217 and not (
218 sender.display_name == 'Meta-Wiki'
219 and sender.email.domain.root_domain == 'wikimedia.org'
220 )
221
222 // we dont want emails where all the links go to meta domains
223 and not (
224 (
225 length(body.links) > 1
226 and all(body.links,
227 .href_url.domain.root_domain in (
228 'facebook.com',
229 'instagram.com',
230 'meta.com'
231 )
232 and not strings.istarts_with(.href_url.path, '/share/')
233 )
234 )
235 // too many links
236 or length(body.links) > 20
237 )
238
239 // no previous threads
240 and length(body.previous_threads) == 0
241
242 // negate highly trusted sender domains unless they fail DMARC authentication
243 and (
244 (
245 sender.email.domain.root_domain in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
246 and not headers.auth_summary.dmarc.pass
247 )
248 or sender.email.domain.root_domain not in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
249
250 // salesforce has been abused for meta phishing campaigns repeatedly
251 or sender.email.domain.root_domain == "salesforce.com"
252 )
253attack_types:
254 - "Credential Phishing"
255tactics_and_techniques:
256 - "Impersonation: Brand"
257 - "Lookalike domain"
258 - "Social engineering"
259detection_methods:
260 - "Header analysis"
261 - "Sender analysis"
262id: "e38f1e3b-79be-5a59-b084-24a851daf6b9"