GitHub Warns Users of Sophisticated Phishing Campaign

silversurfer

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GitHub has warned users that they may be targeted in a fairly sophisticated phishing campaign that the company has dubbed “Sawfish.”

According to the Microsoft-owned company, many of its users have received phishing emails claiming that unauthorized activity has been detected or that a change has been made to their account. The links included in these emails lead to a fake GitHub login page set up to harvest the victim’s username and password and send them to the attackers.

GitHub has pointed out that this phishing campaign has several noteworthy aspects. For example, the phishing page also instructs users who rely on two-factor authentication to protect their account to enter the code generated by their time-based one-time password (TOTP) application. This allows the attackers to hack into accounts protected with this type of system, but the company says users who rely on hardware security keys are not vulnerable.

GitHub also noted that the phishing emails often come from legitimate domains that have been compromised, and the attacks are often aimed at active users working for tech companies in various countries. These users are apparently targeted on the email addresses they used for public commits.

The attackers have also been observed using URL shortening services to hide the final destination of the links included in the phishing emails, and in some cases victims are first directed to a compromised legitimate website before being redirected to the phishing page.

“In many cases, the attacker immediately downloads private repository contents accessible to the compromised user, including those owned by organization accounts and other collaborators,” GitHub said.
 

[correlate]

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GitHub users are currently being targeted by a phishing campaign specifically designed to collect and steal their credentials via landing pages mimicking GitHub's login page.
Besides taking over their accounts, the attackers are also immediately downloading the contents of private repositories, including but not limited to "those owned by organization accounts and other collaborators."
"If the attacker successfully steals GitHub user account credentials, they may quickly create GitHub personal access tokens or authorize OAuth applications on the account in order to preserve access in the event that the user changes their password," GitHub's Security Incident Response Team (SIRT) says.
GitHub's SIRT published information on this ongoing phishing campaign dubbed Sawfish to increase awareness and allow users that might be targeted to protect their accounts and repositories.
 
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