Phishers Evolve to ‘Pharming’

LOS ANGELES — Phishers have recently begun to use at least three new types of attacks in order to convince Internet users to visit bogus sites, including DNS wildcard and poisoning attacks, and URL encoding.

Termed “pharming” by Internet research group Netcraft, the new combination of attacks allows perpetrators to redirect users to seemingly genuine sites that even bear what appear to be correct domain names.

“Phishing is throwing the bait out and hoping to get a bite,” MX Logic CTO Scott Chasin told Government Computer News. “Pharming is planting the seeds and not trusting to chance.”

A recent scam that involved misdirecting Barclays Bank users and stealing their financial information utilized DNS wildcards and URL encoding. Instead of pointing to the bank’s legitimate site, located at https://barclays.co.uk, the email pointed to sites like https://barclays.co.uk|YJ3EMOHOqljQ8J5oW2ZKyTaRMQOahSWazTrFTEQK919VVQj6jDtyq10d24r2h0bijh2, which actually points to a third-party redirection service that instead sent surfers to a spoofed Barclays page located in Moscow.

Netcraft has also warned that attackers are beginning to use DNS cache poisoning to subvert Internet users. The group pointed to an attack that occurred on Saturday, when a group of hackers managed to exploit a known vulnerability in Symantec firewalls to inject false information into DNS servers and reroute some traffic to Google.com, eBay.com and Weather.com to three sites that attempted to install spyware on visitors’ computers.

Luckily, most URL encoding attacks are specific to certain types of systems and don’t work overall. The address above, which features a pipe character, would work on Windows XP, for example, but not on Linux.

DNS poisoning is harder to detect. One of the few options is to trace the geographic location of the website using its IP address, but even that may not paint a whole picture. For example, if users encountered a U.S. bank site that was located in Russia, it might set off alarms, but if a user encountered a U.S. Bank site that was located in Pittsburgh instead of Pennsylvania, it might seem significantly less suspicious.

“We’re starting to see some movement in this, but it is slow,” Chasing said. “We’re not trying to hawk any of these solutions. But we live in the email defense world, and pharming is a tremendous threat to our world.”

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

Pineapple Support Marks 7th Anniversary

Pineapple Support is marking its seventh anniversary by citing its accomplishments and noting its challenges.

'Over the Top' North Carolina Bill Could Play Havoc With Adult Sites

A bill filed in the North Carolina state Assembly on Monday would impose new rules that industry observers warn could push adult websites and platforms to ban most adult creators and content.

Swedish Government Proposes Ban on Purchasing 'Remote' Sexual Services

The Swedish government has asked the country’s Parliament to amend Swedish law so that current laws against purchasing sexual services would also apply to acts performed remotely by cammers, streamers and custom content creators.

PASS Announces New Membership Program for All Adult Industry Workers

Performer Availability Screening Services (PASS) has announced a new membership program for all sectors of the adult industry.

Jewelz Blu, Stripchat to Host XSIV Magazine Launch Party

2025 XMAs winner Jewelz Blu will host an invite-only launch party for the Music issue of XSIV Magazine at Stripchat XSIV House on April 19.

Ofcom: Age Assurance Going Live Across 'Thousands' of Porn Sites

U.K. communications regulator Ofcom said in a statement Thursday that providers of online pornography are implementing age assurance across “thousands of sites” accessible in the U.K., in response to Ofcom’s Online Safety Act (OSA) enforcement program.

ASGMax Debuts 'Roleplay' AI Chat Feature

Alpha Studio Group (ASG) has introduced the ASGmax Roleplay AI chat feature.

XBIZ Miami's Host Hotel Sold Out, General Registration Now Open

Guest rooms at XBIZ Miami’s exclusive conference venue, Nautilus Sonesta Miami Beach hotel in South Beach, are now completely sold out.

Adult Industry Educational, Networking Platform 'Imperfectly You' Launches

Imperfectly You, an educational and networking platform for adult industry workers, has officially launched.

Segpay to Launch News Network for High-Risk Merchants

Segpay has announced that it will launch the Segpay News Network (SNN) on April 15.

Show More