Character Transposition
In the context of domains and cybersecurity, character transposition is a form of typosquatting where an attacker registers a domain name by swapping the order of two adjacent characters from a legitimate domain name. This manipulation is a standard human error in typing, and attackers exploit this to redirect web traffic intended for the correct site to a fraudulent one.
For example, if a legitimate company's domain is facebook.com, an attacker might register faecbook.com by transposing the 'e' and 'c'. Similarly, for a domain like wikipedia.org, a transposition could lead to a fraudulent domain like wikipedai.org.
The goal is to deceive users who may type a URL too quickly or fail to scrutinize the address bar. Once a user lands on the fraudulent domain, they are often presented with a fake website that mimics the legitimate one, enabling the attacker to carry out malicious activities such as phishing, malware distribution, or brand impersonation. The attack is effective because the minor change is often overlooked, making the fraudulent domain appear trustworthy at first glance.
ThreatNG helps with character transposition by proactively discovering and assessing domains that use this manipulation, providing detailed intelligence to mitigate risk before an attack can cause damage.
External Discovery and Assessment
ThreatNG performs purely external and unauthenticated discovery. This means it looks at your organization's digital presence from an attacker's perspective, without needing internal access. ThreatNG automatically generates and looks for variations that use character transposition, such as mcyompany.com or ymcompany.com, which are explicitly categorized as Transpositions within its Domain Name Permutations capability.
The platform uses this discovery to assess an organization's susceptibility to risks directly related to character transposition:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes parts of a web application accessible from the outside world to identify potential entry points for attackers. A fraudulent domain with a character transposition could be used to create a fake login page, which would be identified as a possible web application hijack risk.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: This score is derived from Domain Intelligence, which includes the Domain Name Permutations capability. This helps identify domains with character transpositions that could be used in phishing attacks.
Brand Damage Susceptibility: By identifying domains with character transpositions, ThreatNG can determine potential threats that could be used for brand impersonation and to host malicious content, thus protecting the brand's reputation.
Investigation Modules and Intelligence Repositories
The Domain Intelligence module is the primary tool for detecting threats related to character transpositions. Within this module, the DNS Intelligence capability specifically detects and groups these manipulations. ThreatNG's platform identifies both available and taken character transposition permutations, providing the associated IP address and mail record for those that are already registered and potentially in use by malicious actors.
ThreatNG's intelligence repositories, known as DarCache, provide valuable context. For example, DarCache Rupture (Compromised Credentials) can reveal if a fraudulent domain is tied to compromised user data. At the same time, DarCache Dark Web can show if a planned phishing campaign using such a domain is being discussed in dark web forums.
Continuous Monitoring and Reporting
ThreatNG provides continuous monitoring of the external attack surface and digital risk. This ensures that new domains with character transpositions are detected as soon as they appear, enabling a swift and proactive response to mitigate the impersonation before it causes significant damage. The platform's reports, which can be Executive, Technical, or Prioritized, highlight any discovered domains and their associated risks. The Prioritized reports use risk levels to help organizations focus on the most critical risks and make informed decisions about mitigation.
Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's proactive intelligence makes it a strong complement to other security solutions. For example, if ThreatNG identifies a newly registered domain with a character transposition like mcyompany.com and its associated IP address, this information can be used to update a DNS firewall to automatically block internal network traffic from accessing that fraudulent site. Alternatively, if ThreatNG detects that a fraudulent domain has active mail records, this intelligence can be shared with an email security gateway. This allows the gateway to proactively block any emails originating from that domain, preventing a phishing campaign from reaching employees' inboxes before it even begins.
