Registration is now open for SASE Week 2023! Get on the guest list.

  • Security Service Edge Products

    Protect against advanced and cloud-enabled threats and safeguard data across all vectors.

  • Borderless SD-WAN

    Confidently provide secure, high-performance access to every remote user, device, site, and cloud.

The platform of the future is Netskope

Intelligent Security Service Edge (SSE), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Cloud Firewall, Next Generation Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Private Access for ZTNA built natively into a single solution to help every business on its journey to Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture.

Go to Products Overview
Netskope video
Borderless SD-WAN: Ushering in the New Era of Borderless Enterprise

Netskope Borderless SD-WAN offers an architecture that converges zero trust principles and assured application performance to provide unprecedented secure, high-performance connectivity for every site, cloud, remote user, and IoT device.

Read the article
Borderless SD-WAN
  • NewEdge

    NewEdge is the world’s largest, highest-performing security private cloud.

  • Cloud Security Platform

    Unrivaled visibility and real-time data and threat protection on the world's largest security private cloud.

  • Technology Partners & Integrations

    Netskope partners with the strongest companies in enterprise technology.

Embrace a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture

Netskope NewEdge is the world’s largest, highest-performing security private cloud and provides customers with unparalleled service coverage, performance and resilience.

Learn about NewEdge
NewEdge
Your Network of Tomorrow

Plan your path toward a faster, more secure, and more resilient network designed for the applications and users that you support.

Get the white paper
Your Network of Tomorrow
Netskope Cloud Exchange

The Netskope Cloud Exchange (CE) provides customers with powerful integration tools to leverage investments across their security posture.

Learn about Cloud Exchange
Netskope video
Make the move to market-leading cloud security services with minimal latency and high reliability.

Learn about NewEdge
Lighted highway through mountainside switchbacks
Safely enable the use of generative AI applications with application access control, real-time user coaching, and best-in-class data protection.

Learn how we secure generative AI use
Safely Enable ChatGPT and Generative AI
Zero trust solutions for SSE and SASE deployments

Learn about Zero Trust
Boat driving through open sea
Netskope enables a safe, cloud-smart, and fast journey to adopt cloud services, apps, and public cloud infrastructure.

Learn about Industry Solutions
Wind turbines along cliffside
  • Resources

    Learn more about how Netskope can help you secure your journey to the cloud.

  • Blog

    Learn how Netskope enables security and networking transformation through security service edge (SSE).

  • Events & Workshops

    Stay ahead of the latest security trends and connect with your peers.

  • Security Defined

    Everything you need to know in our cybersecurity encyclopedia.

Security Visionaries Podcast

Leveling Up the SASE Conversation
Robert Arandjelovic and Gerry Plaza sit down to chat with Max Havey about how embracing a SASE journey can help bring networking and security teams closer together.

Play the podcast
Leveling Up the SASE Conversation
Latest Blogs

How Netskope can enable the Zero Trust and SASE journey through security service edge (SSE) capabilities.

Read the blog
Sunrise and cloudy sky
SASE Week 2023: Your SASE journey starts now!

Join us for the fourth annual SASE Week, September 26-28.

Get on the guest list
SASE Week 2023
What is Security Service Edge?

Explore the security side of SASE, the future of network and protection in the cloud.

Learn about Security Service Edge
Four-way roundabout
  • Our Customers

    Netskope serves more than 2,000 customers worldwide including more than 25 of the Fortune 100

  • Customer Solutions

    We are here for you and with you every step of the way, ensuring your success with Netskope.

  • Netskope Community

    Learn from other network, data, and security professionals.

  • Training and Certification

    Netskope training will help you become a cloud security expert.

We help our customers to be Ready for Anything

See our Customers
Woman smiling with glasses looking out window
Netskope’s talented and experienced Professional Services team provides a prescriptive approach to your successful implementation.

Learn about Professional Services
Netskope Professional Services
The Netskope Community can help you and your team get more value out of products and practices.

Go to the Netskope Community
The Netskope Community
Secure your digital transformation journey and make the most of your cloud, web, and private applications with Netskope training.

Learn about Training and Certifications
Group of young professionals working
  • Company

    We help you stay ahead of cloud, data, and network security challenges.

  • Why Netskope

    Cloud transformation and work from anywhere have changed how security needs to work.

  • Leadership

    Our leadership team is fiercely committed to doing everything it takes to make our customers successful.

  • Partners

    We partner with security leaders to help you secure your journey to the cloud.

Supporting sustainability through data security

Netskope is proud to participate in Vision 2045: an initiative aimed to raise awareness on private industry’s role in sustainability.

Find out more
Supporting Sustainability Through Data Security
Highest in Execution. Furthest in Vision.

Netskope recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Service Edge.

Get the report
Netskope recognized as a Leader in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Security Service Edge.
Thinkers, builders, dreamers, innovators. Together, we deliver cutting-edge cloud security solutions to help our customers protect their data and people.

Meet our team
Group of hikers scaling a snowy mountain
Netskope’s partner-centric go-to-market strategy enables our partners to maximize their growth and profitability while transforming enterprise security.

Learn about Netskope Partners
Group of diverse young professionals smiling

Cloud Abuse: New Technique Using Adobe Acrobat to Host Phishing

Nov 16 2022

Summary

Netskope Threat Labs recently discovered a phishing campaign that is abusing Adobe Acrobat to host a Microsoft Office phishing page. While abusing free cloud services to host malicious content is a popular attack technique, this is the first time we have seen Adobe Acrobat used to deliver malicious content. 

The attack starts with a phishing email that lures the user into opening a PDF file that redirects them to an Adobe Acrobat URL. This URL is hosting a malicious HTML page, which aims to steal Microsoft Office usernames and passwords. Once the victim enters the credentials in the phishing form, they are sent to a PHP page hosted on another website.

Below, is a diagram to illustrate how this attack works:

Summary of the phishing attack.

In January 2022, a similar attack was spotted, where attackers were abusing Adobe Creative Cloud to host malicious PDF files. In the recent campaign spotted by Netskope Threat Labs, attackers are instead abusing Adobe Acrobat to host the malicious HTML files.

Different from Adobe Creative Cloud, attackers can easily create free trial accounts in Adobe Acrobat without having to provide credit card numbers or any additional personal information. Once the account is created, the attackers can host and publicly share files. Netskope Threat Labs tested this technique by creating a free trial account in Adobe Acrobat, then uploading and sharing an HTML file in less than 2 minutes. 

In this blog post, you will find more details about how this attack works.

Details

The attack starts with a phishing email that lures the user into opening an attached PDF file, disguised as a payment receipt. This is a very common social engineering technique that tries to draw the attention of the victim with a fake document related to money, such as an invoice or a receipt.

Phishing email.

The PDF file contains an image and a button that redirects the user to an Adobe URL that will download the phishing page.

PDF redirecting the user to a URL that downloads phishing.

The URL points to a file hosted on Adobe Acrobat, which was uploaded by the attacker.

The HTML file is a phishing page for Microsoft Office, aiming to steal username and password. 

The attack flow involves the victim opening the HTML file locally, however, it’s also possible to access the HTML phishing page through the temporary link created by Adobe Acrobat for the download.

Phishing page hosted with Adobe Acrobat.

Looking at the HTML, we can see that the form submits the sensitive information to a PHP page hosted on another website. There’s also a slightly obfuscated JavaScript responsible for validating the fields.

Part of the phishing HTML page.

Once the victim adds the sensitive data on the phishing page, the data is sent to the attacker via POST request. The phishing also redirects the user to the legitimate Microsoft login page, to avoid raising suspicions.

Phishing redirecting the victim to the legitimate Microsoft login page.

Conclusions

In this blog post, we saw that attackers can easily create free accounts on Adobe Acrobat to host and share malicious files, such as phishing pages. We strongly recommend individuals avoid opening unknown emails, especially if they contain links or attachments. Always be suspicious of files like PDFs and Office documents that require you to do an action, like clicking a button. Last, but not least, never enter sensitive information, such as  username and password, without double checking the URL and making sure it’s a legitimate website. All malicious URLs were reported and promptly taken down by Adobe on November 9, 2022.

Protection

Netskope Threat Labs is actively monitoring this campaign and has ensured coverage for all known threat indicators and payloads. 

IOCs

URLs

hxxps://acrobat.adobe[.]com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:6064b327-179c-4834-85ce-37eba11f6902

hxxps://acrobat.adobe[.]com/e54e5be6-270a-4a67-8a60-4a52752b64fe

hxxs://wadweb.com[.]ar/clientes/js.php

author image
Gustavo Palazolo
Gustavo Palazolo is an expert in malware analysis, reverse engineering and security research, working many years in projects related to electronic fraud protection. He is currently working on the Netskope Research Team, discovering and analyzing new malware threats.

Stay informed!

Subscribe for the latest from the Netskope Blog