Introduction
Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a security feature we have come to expect as standard by 2024. Most of today’s websites offer some form of it, and some of them won’t even let you use their service until you enable 2FA. Individual countries have adopted laws that require certain types of organizations to protect users’ accounts with 2FA.
Unfortunately, its popularity has spurred on the development of many methods to hack or bypass it that keep evolving and adapting to current realities. The particular hack scheme depends on the type of 2FA that it targets. Although there are quite a few 2FA varieties, most implementations rely on one-time passwords (OTPs) that the user can get via a text message, voice call, email message, instant message from the website’s official bot or push notification from a mobile app. These are the kind of codes that most online scammers are after.
Malicious actors can obtain OTPs in a variety of ways including complex, multi-stage hacks. This article examines methods that rely on social engineering, where attackers manipulate the victim into giving away the OTP, and tools that they use to automate the manipulations: so-called OTP bots and administration panels to control phishing kits.
What is an OTP bot?
The use of OTP bots to bypass 2FA is a relatively recent online scam trend that poses a major threat to both users and online services. An OTP bot is a piece of software programmed to intercept OTPs with the help of social engineering.
A typical scam pattern that uses an OTP bot to steal 2FA codes consists of the following steps:
The attacker gets hold of ..
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