Attackers leverage Microsoft Dynamics 365 to phish users

Attackers are abusing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Voice to evade email filters and deliver phishing emails into Microsoft users’ inboxes, Avanan researchers are warning.

The attack

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) applications. Customer Voice is one of these applications, and it’s used for collecting data and feedback from customers via surveys, phone calls, etc.

The attackers have created Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Voice accounts and are using them to send out phishing emails telling recipients that they have received a voicemail.

“To the end user, this looks like a voicemail from a customer, which would be important to listen to. Clicking on it is the natural step,” Avanan cybersecurity researcher Jeremy Fuchs explains.

The link in the email is a legitimate Customer Voice link from Microsoft and points to a standard Microsoft page, which is enough to make email filters and security scanners believe that the email is legitimate and allow it to land into users’ inbox.

Unfortunately, clicking on the “Play Voicemail” button included on this page redirects users to a spoofed Microsoft login page. In this particular case, though, careful users will notice that the URL of the phishing page has nothing to do with Microsoft.

Attackers often exploit trusted services

“Hackers continually use what we call The Static Expressway to reach end-users. In short, it’s a technique that leverages legitimate sites to get past security scanners,” Fuchs adds.

“The logic is this: Security services can’t outright block Microsoft – it would be impossible to get any work done. Instead, these links from trusted sources tend to be automatically trusted. That has created an avenue for hackers to insert themselves.”

Similarly, phishers have been known to exploit Facebook Ads, QuickBooks, Lucidchart, Adobe Cloud, and many other legitimate services.