CAPEC-632 Homograph Attack via Homoglyphs

An adversary registers a domain name containing a homoglyph, leading the registered domain to appear the same as a trusted domain. A homograph attack leverages the fact that different characters among various character sets look the same to the user. Homograph attacks must generally be combined with other attacks, such as phishing attacks, in order to direct Internet traffic to the adversary-controlled destinations.

1. [Explore] [Determine target website] The adversary first determines which website to impersonate, generally one that is trusted and receives a consistent amount of traffic. 2. [Experiment] [Impersonate trusted domain] In order to impersonate the trusted domain, the adversary needs to register the URL containing the homoglpyh character(s). 3. [Exploit] [Deceive user into visiting domain] Finally, the adversary needs to deceive a user into visiting the Homograph domain.

• An adversary requires knowledge of popular or high traffic domains, that could be used to deceive potential targets.

• [Low] Adversaries must be able to register DNS hostnames/URL’s.

• Other: Other

• Authenticate all servers and perform redundant checks when using DNS hostnames. • Utilize browsers that can warn users if URLs contain characters from different character sets.