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Xeon Sender Tool Exploits Cloud APIs for Large-Scale SMS Phishing Attacks

Malicious actors are using a cloud attack tool named Xeon Sender to conduct SMS phishing and spam campaigns on a large scale by abusing legitimate services. "Attackers can use Xeon to send messages through multiple software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers using valid credentials for the service providers," SentinelOne security researcher Alex Delamotte said in a report shared with The Hacker News. Examples of the services used to facilitate the en masse distribution of SMS messages include Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), Nexmo, Plivo, Proovl, Send99, Telesign, Telnyx, TextBelt, Twilio. It's important to note here that the activity does not exploit any inherent weaknesses in these providers. Rather, the tool uses legitimate APIs to conduct bulk SMS spam attacks. It joins tools like SNS Sender that have increasingly become a way to send bulk smishing messages and ultimately capture sensitive information from targets. Distributed via Telegram and hacking forums, with one of the older versions crediting a Telegram channel devoted to advertising cracked hacktools. The most recent version, available for download as a ZIP file, attributes itself to a Telegram channel named Orion Toolxhub (oriontoolxhub) that has 200 members. Orion Toolxhub was created on February 1, 2023. It has also freely made available other software for brute-force attacks, reverse IP address lookups, and others such as a WordPress site scanner, a PHP web shell, a Bitcoin clipper, and a program called…Read More

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