Security News > 2023 > January > New 'Blank Image' attack hides phishing scripts in SVG files
An unusual phishing technique has been observed in the wild, hiding empty SVG files inside HTML attachments pretending to be DocuSign documents.
Security researchers at email security provider Avanan named it "Blank Image." They explain that the attack allows phishing actors to evade detection of redirect URLs.
HTML files are popular among phishing actors because they are typically ignored by email security products and thus have higher chances of reaching the target's inbox.
The HTML file contains an SVG image encoded using the Base64 encoding format with an embedded JavaScript code that redirects the victim automatically to the malicious URL. The SVG image does not contain any graphics or shapes, so it renders nothing on the screen.
It's worth noting that the use of SVG files inside HTML containing base64-obfuscated code isn't new.
When an HTML document displays an SVG image through an or tag, the image is displayed and the JavaScript inside it executes.
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