A new hacking tool may threaten security approaches as it lands on the dark web. According to researchers, the new MASQ tool available for sale on the dark web spoofs device fingerprints, essentially allowing an adversary to bypass security checks.
MASQ Tool Spoofs Device Fingerprints
Researchers from the cybersecurity firm Resecurity HUNTER have spotted the MASQ tool actively sold on the dark web. As elaborated in a report from Security Affairs, the MASQ tool spoofs device fingerprints to bypass authentication mechanisms.
Device fingerprints typically include specific details of a users’ device that serve as the users’ online identity. These may include the IP address, browser information, device model, type, and features, screen resolution, time zone, browser plugins, language settings, and more.
These details help the antifraud mechanisms to validate legit users. However, the new MASQ tool can spoof this all. Thus, it becomes too difficult to distinguish a spoofed login from a legit one. This helps the attackers break into users’ bank accounts, make fraudulent payments, and meddle with other online transactions.
As stated in the post,
Having credentials to a particular account, with help of MASQ, cybercriminals are re-using stolen cookie files from the victim, and spoofing device fingerprints, – essentially making them look the same as the victim.
Using MASQ and spoofing fingerprints also helps access logged-in accounts or bypass 2FA due to cached sessions.
In short, an attacker may easily spoof the device of a target victim together to impersonate the user. While there might be some differences in digital details, such as the exact IP, a spoofed fingerprint would trick the system into trusting the malicious attempt.
MASQ is currently on sale on the dark web for $130 with as low as $1 per new device fingerprint. The recent version of the tool is MASQ v.0.198, released on June 13, 2021. The tool presently includes more than 70 spoofed fingerprints from different devices that the sellers have sorted into six different categories. These include mobile phones, tablets, gaming consoles, Smart TVs, and more.