A new type of phishing attack has been discovered, in which malicious Google ads are used to insert AWS phishing sites into search results. Sentiel Labs’ security researchers made the discovery.
On January 30, 2023, Sentinel Labs analysts discovered the malicious search results. When searching for “aws,” the ads came in second, just behind Amazon’s own promoted search result.
The phishing attack works by redirecting users from a legitimate-looking Google ad to a bogus Amazon Web Services login page. The spoof login page is designed to look exactly like the real AWS login page, duping users into entering their login credentials. Once the attacker has the login credentials, he or she can access the victim’s AWS account and steal sensitive data.
The malicious Google ads reroute victims to a blogger website under the attacker’s control, which is a copy of a legitimate vegan food blog at “us1-eat-a-w-s.blogspot[.]com”. After being redirected to the fake blog, the user is prompted to log in using their AWS credentials. The attackers use this information to gain access to the victim’s AWS account, from which they can steal sensitive data and engage in other malicious activities.
When the user arrives at the bogus website, they are prompted to enter their AWS credentials by selecting whether they are a root or IAM user and then entering their email address and password. This information is used by the attackers to gain access to the victim’s AWS account and steal sensitive information.
The sources for this piece include an article in BleepingComputer.