1.888.900.DRIZ (3749)
The Driz Group
  • Managed Services
    • SME CyberShield
    • Web Application Security >
      • Schedule WAF Demo
    • Virtual CISO
    • Compliance >
      • SOC1 & SOC2
      • GDPR
    • Third-Party Risk Management
    • Vulnerability Assessment >
      • Free Vulnerability Assessment
  • About us
    • Testimonials
    • Meet The Team
    • Resources
    • In the news
    • Careers
    • Subsidiaries
  • Contact
    • Newsletter
  • How WAF Works
  • Blog
  • Managed Services
    • SME CyberShield
    • Web Application Security >
      • Schedule WAF Demo
    • Virtual CISO
    • Compliance >
      • SOC1 & SOC2
      • GDPR
    • Third-Party Risk Management
    • Vulnerability Assessment >
      • Free Vulnerability Assessment
  • About us
    • Testimonials
    • Meet The Team
    • Resources
    • In the news
    • Careers
    • Subsidiaries
  • Contact
    • Newsletter
  • How WAF Works
  • Blog

Cybersecurity Blog

Thought leadership. Threat analysis. Cybersecurity news and alerts.

9/23/2021

0 Comments

What Is Phishing-As-A-Service and How to Protect Your Organization

 
Phishing as a Service

What Is Phishing-As-A-Service and How to Protect Your Organization

Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team recently published their findings on a large-scale phishing-as-a-service operation called “BulletProofLink.”

What Is Phishing-as-a-Service?

Phishing-as-a-service follows the software-as-a-service model in which cybercriminals pay an operator to launch an email-based phishing campaign. 

In an email-based phishing campaign, the target receives an email from a seemingly legitimate origin. The email, however, is a malicious one, masquerading as coming from a legitimate source. Clicking a link on this malicious email will lead to a compromised or fake website. The login details entered by the target who believes he or she is logging into a legitimate website will then be harvested for criminal activities.

BulletProofLink

BulletProofLink, also known as BulletProftLink and Anthrax, is an example of a phishing-as-a-service. This phishing-as-a-service was first reported by OSINT Fans in October 2020. According to OSINT Fans, the phishing campaign launched by BulletProofLink started with a phishing email impersonating a Sydney-based accounting firm. The email looked legitimate, with no sign of broken English or a spoofed email sender.

Inside this email is the Remittance Advice receipts.pdf link. Clinking this link, OSINT Fans said, leads to a pixel-perfect clone of the Microsoft 365 login page. “If a victim enters their password on this page, the login credentials are sent straight to the criminals rather than Microsoft,” OSINT Fans said.

In the blog post “Catching the big fish: Analyzing a large-scale phishing-as-a-service operation,” Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team said BulletProofLink offers phishing-as-a-service at a relatively low cost, offering a wide range of services, including email templates, site templates, email delivery, site hosting, credential theft, credential redistribution, and "fully undetected" links/logs.

Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team said BulletProofLink has over 100 available phishing templates that mimic known brands and services. The BulletProofLink operation, the Team said, is responsible for many of the phishing campaigns that impact enterprises today.

The Team also reported that BulletProofLink used a rather high volume of newly created and unique subdomains – over 300,000 in a single run. The Team added that BulletProofLink is used by multiple attacker groups in either one-off or monthly subscription-based business models, creating a steady revenue stream for BulletProofLink’s operators.

BulletProofLink’s monthly service costs as much as $800, while the one-time hosting link costs about $50 dollars. The common mode of payment is Bitcoin.

Infinite Subdomain Abuse

According to Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team, the operators behind BulletProofLink use the technique, which the Team calls “infinite subdomain abuse.” The Team said infinite subdomain abuse happens when attackers compromise a website’s DNS or when a compromised site is configured with a DNS that allows wildcard subdomains.

Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team said infinite subdomain abuse is gaining popularity among attackers for the following reasons:

“It serves as a departure from previous techniques that involved hackers obtaining large sets of single-use domains. To leverage infinite subdomains for use in email links that serve to redirect to a smaller set of final landing pages, the attackers then only need to compromise the DNS of the site, and not the site itself.

“It allows phishing operators to maximize the unique domains they are able to use by configuring dynamically generated subdomains as prefix to the base domain for each individual email.

“The creation of unique URLs poses a challenge to mitigation and detection methods that rely solely on exact matching for domains and URLs.”

Double Theft

Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team said that BulletProofLink's phishing-as-a-service is reminiscent of the ransomware-as-a-service model. Today’s ransomware attacks involve, not just data encryption, but exfiltrating or stealing data as well. In a ransomware-as-a-service scenario, the ransomware operator doesn’t necessarily delete the stolen data even if the ransom has already been paid.

In both ransomware and phishing, Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team said that operators supplying resources to facilitate attacks maximize monetization by assuring stolen data are put to use in as many ways as possible. Victims’ credentials, the Team said, are likely to end up in the underground economy. “For a relatively simple service, the return of investment offers a considerable motivation as far as the email threat landscape goes,” Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team said.

Cybersecurity Best Practices

To protect Microsoft 365 users from phishing-as-a-service operations, Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team recommends the following cybersecurity best practices:

  • Use anti-phishing policiesto enable mailbox intelligence settings
  • Configure impersonation protection settings for specific messages and sender domains
  • Enable SafeLinksto ensure real-time protection by scanning at time of delivery and at time of click
  • Secure the Azure AD identity infrastructure
  • Enable multifactor authentication
  • Block sign-in attempts from legacy authentication

 

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Steve E. Driz, I.S.P., ITCP

    Picture
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    June 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015

    Categories

    All
    0-Day
    2FA
    Access Control
    Advanced Persistent Threat
    AI
    AI Security
    Artificial Intelligence
    ATP
    Awareness Training
    Blockchain
    Botnet
    Bots
    Brute Force Attack
    CASL
    Cloud Security
    Compliance
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Cryptocurrency
    Cyber Attack
    Cyberattack Surface
    Cyber Awareness
    Cybercrime
    Cyber Espionage
    Cyber Insurance
    Cyber Security
    Cybersecurity
    Cybersecurity Audit
    Cyber Security Consulting
    Cyber Security Insurance
    Cyber Security Risk
    Cyber Security Threats
    Cybersecurity Tips
    Data Breach
    Data Governance
    Data Leak
    Data Leak Prevention
    Data Privacy
    DDoS
    Email Security
    Endpoint Protection
    Fraud
    GDPR
    Hacking
    Impersonation Scams
    Incident Management
    Insider Threat
    IoT
    Machine Learning
    Malware
    MFA
    Microsoft Office
    Mobile Security
    Network Security Threats
    Phishing Attack
    Privacy
    Ransomware
    Remote Access
    SaaS Security
    Social Engineering
    Supply Chain Attack
    Supply-Chain Attack
    Third Party Risk
    Third-Party Risk
    VCISO
    Virtual CISO
    Vulnerability
    Vulnerability Assessment
    Web Applcation Security
    Web-applcation-security
    Web Application Firewall
    Web Application Protection
    Web Application Security
    Web Protection
    Windows Security
    Zero Trust

    RSS Feed

Picture

1.888.900.DRIZ (3749)

Managed Services

Picture
SME CyberShield
​Web Application Security
​Virtual CISO
Compliance
​Vulnerability Assessment
Free Vulnerability Assessment
Privacy Policy | CASL

About us

Picture
Testimonials
​Meet the Team
​Subsidiaries
​Contact us
​Blog
​
Jobs

Resources & Tools

Picture
​Incident Management Playbook
Sophos authorized partner logo
Picture
© 2025 Driz Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Photo from GotCredit