QRLJacking - A new Social Engineering Attack Vector

Find documentation in our Wiki.

What is QRLJacking?

QRLJacking or Quick Response Code Login Jacking is a simple social engineering attack vector capable of session hijacking affecting all applications that rely on “Login with QR code” feature as a secure way to login into accounts. In a simple way, In a nutshell victim scans the attacker’s QR code results of session hijacking.

What are the requirements to achieve a successful QRLJacking attack?

QRLJacking attack consists of two sides:

1. Server Side: A server side script is needed to serve and shape the final look to the victim.
2. Client Side: Cloning the QR and pushing it to the phishing page.

Our example will be: WhatsApp Web Application!

Server Setup (Attacker's hosting):

1. Upload "qrHandler.php" to your server, this php file is used to convert the base64 qr code string into a valid .JPG file

   Now we have a valid generated QR image named "tmp.jpg" residing in the same root folder of your files and will be updated whenever that php file will be called, So we can put it anywhere "for example a fake WhatsApp page, a scam page with an offer related to WhatsApp, etc... depending on your creativity"

2. Now update the "phishing.html" file your prefered phishing page source code.

Client Side Setup (Attacker's browser):

1. Open your Firefox browser!
2. Write "about:config" in the url area, click the "i'll be careful, i promise" confirmation button.
3. Search for a preference named "security.csp.enable" and change it's value to "false" by double clicking it to allow performing an XHR Request over a different domain (We're not supporting leaving this preference disabled, you may do that while testing, but after that you should set the preference to its original state).
4. Instal Greasemonkey addon (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey) and be sure that the module file "WhatsAppQRJackingModule.js" is loaded and already running!
5. Now We're Ready, Browse to our example "https://web.whatsapp.com" on your side, Wait for a WhatsApp session to be loaded, Greasemonkey should now inject our WhatsApp module file to catch and .
6. Send the direct link of the final phishing page to a victim "Once the QR scanned, Victim's session is yours now"

Demo Video:

Attacking WhatsApp Web Application and performing MiTM attack to inject a bogus ad including WhatsApp QR Code Demo Video

Technical Paper

The technical paper clarifying everything about QRLJacking attack vector can be found directly via our Wiki.

Vulnerable Web Applications and Services

There is a lot of well-known web applications and Services which are vulnerable to this attack till the date we wrote this paper. Here's some examples (that we have reported) including but not limited to:

Chat Applications:

WhatsApp, WeChat, Line, Weibo, QQ Instant Messaging

Mailing Services:

QQ Mail (Personal and Business Corporate), Yandex Mail

eCommerce:

Alibaba, Aliexpress, Taobao, Tmall, 1688.com, Alimama, Taobao Trips

Online Banking:

AliPay, Yandex Money, TenPay

Passport Services “Critical”:

Yandex Passport (Yandex Mail, Yandex Money, Yandex Maps, Yandex Videos, etc...)

Mobile Management Software:

AirDroid

Other Services:

MyDigiPass, Zapper & Zapper WordPress Login by QR Code plugin, Trustly App, Yelophone, Alibaba Yunos

Author

Mohamed Abdelbasset Elnouby (@SymbianSyMoh)

Information Security Researcher

Seekurity Labs

[email protected]

Acknowledgements

I would like to personally thank the talented people who helped shaping the QRLJacking attack and getting it out to the light. (List in no particular order)

Thanks to:

• Mohamed Abdel Aty (@M_Aty)
• Mostafa Kassem (@Zanzofily)
• Karim Shoair (@D4Vinci)
• Abdelrahman Shawky (@ShawkyZ)
• Ahmed Elsobky (@0xSobky)
• Ahmed Abbas (@Fiberghost)
• Juan Carlos Mejia (@Th3kr45h)
• Mohamed Elfateh (OWASP Egypt)