Browser-in-the-browser attacks are simple yet sophisticated phishing scams. Hackers emulate trusted services via fake pop-up windows that look like the actual (real) login pages. While there have been a lot of reports describing browser-in-the-browser tactics, it is very difficult to actually catch a hacker deploying this campaign.
Fake Steam pages used to target gamers
Cybercriminals are targeting Counter-Strike 2 (a free-to-play tactical first-person shooter game) players using a disguised Steam login page that looks quite convincing. The fake page tricks innocent gamers into giving away their account IDs and passwords.
The hackers distributed the attack on the websites that pretended to represent the sports team Navi. “Part of the campaign’s attack tactics also includes abusing the name of a professional esports team called Navi,” reports cybersecurity vendor Silent Push. The hackers offered visitors free weapons skins or a “free case” that could be used in the game. To get these freebies, the phishing page demanded users to log in to Steam.
“All of the websites our team has found so far were in English save one Chinese site, simplegive[.]cn, which was created in Mandarin, with some English wording, and used the top-level domain (TLD) '.cn,” reports Silent Push.
Campaign explained
The campaign, an example of browser-in-the-browser tactic, is built around creating an almost real-looking fake browser pop-up windows that display the URL of the actual website. It aims to make a visitor feel safe; the users believe the pop-up window is part of the real site. When a victim tries to log into the fake Steam portal, the hackers steal their login credentials and also try to take over victim accounts for future resale. After this, the site shows a fake pop-up page that mimics the Steam login portal, including the official “steamcommunity.com” domain in the web address. But the pop-up is a dummy window inside the phishing webpage; Silent Push has shown this in its video.
More about fake pop-up and how to identify it
According to Silent Push, the fake pop-up to the Steam login “cannot be maximized, minimized, or moved outside the browser window even though victims can ‘interact’ with the URL bar of the fake pop-up.” Silent Push also said that the campaign can be more effective for desktop users because the pop-ups are designed to be viewed on a larger resolution, in this case, big screens. All the fake Navi websites discovered were in English, except one Chinese site, which was in Mandarin with few English words.
The fake websites were hosted on domains like casenaps[.]com, caserevs[.]com, and caseneiv[.]com. However, it doesn’t seem likely that the hackers took the time to make fake pop-ups for mobile phone viewing. To stay safe, users should always check for fake URL bars in any login pop-ups. If you find any URL bar, always drag that window outside of your browser. If it doesn’t move, you can tell the pop-up is fake.
