![]() Here’s an email spoofing example with a PayPal phishing attack: To the user, a spoofed email message looks legitimate because many attackers use elements from the official website to make the message more believable. If the user is successfully tricked and types in credentials, the attacker can authenticate into the targeted user’s PayPal account and steal the user’s money. The message tells the user that their account will be suspended if they don’t click a link, authenticate into the site, and change the account’s password. It’s up to the user to realize that the reply is going to the wrong recipient.Īs an example of email spoofing, an attacker might create an email that looks like it comes from PayPal. Again, email servers and the SMTP protocol do not validate whether this email is legitimate or forged. The Reply-To address tells the client email software where to send a reply, which can be different from the sender’s address. The sender can configure this field and use it in a phishing attack. ![]() The three major components of an email are:Īnother component often used in phishing is the Reply-To field. These headers divulge the true route and sender, but many users do not check headers before interacting with an email sender. The recipient’s email server then routes the message to the right user inbox.įor every “hop” an email message takes as it travels across the internet from server to server, the IP address of each server is logged and included in the email headers. The SMTP server identifies the recipient domain and routes it to the domain’s email server. When a user clicks “Send” in an email client, the message is first sent to the outgoing SMTP server configured in the client software. ![]() Outgoing email is retrieved and routed using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). And outgoing email servers can’t determine whether the sender’s address is legitimate. Email API endpoints allow a sender to specify the sender address regardless of whether the address exists. But an attacker can programmatically send messages using basic scripts in any language that configures the sender address to a chosen email address. Exploiting that trust, the attacker asks the recipient to divulge information or take some other action.Ī typical email client (such as Microsoft Outlook) automatically enters the sender address when a user sends a new email message. Still, users can review each message’s email header to determine whether the sender address is forged.Įmail spoofing aims to trick users into believing the email is from someone they know or trust-in most cases, a colleague, vendor, or brand. Unfortunately, not every email service has security protocols in place. Recipient servers and antimalware software can help detect and filter spoofed messages. The client application assigns a sender address to outgoing messages, so outgoing email servers cannot identify whether the sender address is legitimate or spoofed. So they’ll click malicious links, open malware attachments, send sensitive data, and even wire corporate funds.Įmail spoofing is possible due to how email systems are designed. If it’s a name they recognize, they’re more likely to trust it. Users don’t realize the sender is forged unless they inspect the header more closely. In spoofing attacks, the sender forges email headers so that client software displays the fraudulent sender address, which most users take at face value. Email spoofing is a technique used in spam and phishing attacks to trick users into thinking a message came from a person or entity they know or trust.
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