Hyphenations
In the context of domains and cybersecurity, hyphenations refer to a type of domain manipulation where a hyphen (-) is either added to or removed from a domain name. Attackers use this tactic, a form of typosquatting, to create fraudulent domains that appear legitimate to a user who might not notice the small punctuation change.
The deceptive practice exploits the common practice of many legitimate businesses using hyphens to separate words in their domain names. For instance, if a company's official domain is my-company.com, an attacker could register mycompany.com to capture traffic from users who forget the hyphen. Conversely, if the official domain is mycompany.com, an attacker could register my-company.com to trick users into thinking the hyphenated version is also legitimate.
The goal is to trick a user who expects a hyphen (or the lack thereof) to be in the URL. These fraudulent sites are commonly used for phishing, malware distribution, or to display aggressive advertisements, as users are more likely to trust a domain that looks visually similar to a brand they know. The attacker relies on a small but critical detail to redirect traffic for malicious purposes.
ThreatNG helps an organization with hyphenations 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 of a legitimate domain that use hyphens, such as my-company.com or my-company-inc.com, which are explicitly categorized as Hyphenations within its Domain Name Permutations capability.
The platform uses this discovery to assess an organization's susceptibility to risks directly related to these hyphenated domains:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: ThreatNG's score is based on its analysis of external web application parts. A fraudulent hyphenated domain could be used to create a fake login page, which would be identified as a potential entry point for attackers.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: This score is derived from Domain Intelligence, which includes the Domain Name Permutations capability. This helps identify hyphenated domains that could be used in phishing attacks.
Brand Damage Susceptibility: By identifying hyphenated domains, 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 hyphenated domains. Within this module, the DNS Intelligence capability specifically detects and groups these manipulations. ThreatNG's platform identifies both available and taken hyphenated domain 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 hyphenated 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 hyphenated domains 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 hyphenated 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 hyphenated domain like my-c0mpany.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 hyphenated 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.
