Why is an Email Spoofing Tool Important? How to Detect and Prevent?

Email Spoofing continues to be a proven tactic hackers use to execute their email phishing and spam attacks.

Trustifi, a global leader in email security, checks every inbound message for DMARC, SPF, and DKIM. Yet even with email security leaders like Trustifi checking message authentication, only a small percentage of organizations enable these security settings.

What is Email Spoofing and Its Potential Dangers?

Email spoofing is a proven form of hacking where the hacker emails from legitimate domains and addresses. Users receiving a spoofed email will disregard the risk, open the rogue messages, and often reply.

There are three standard techniques for spoofing hackers will use,

Domain: The hacker alters the “From” field by inserting the forged sender email address.

Display Name: The hacker will change the display name on the email address.

Lookalike: Hackers will create a domain similar to an actual sending domain.

Hackers who use email spoofing techniques have successfully bypassed email filtering solutions, impersonated someone important, and committed a business email compromise attack(BEC). In a recent public service announcement from the FBI on their IC3.gov website, BEC attacks and other email scams cost organizations nearly 50 billion dollars between 2022 and 2023. The report also documented a 17% increase in BEC attacks during the same timeframe.

Moreover, cybercriminals use email spoofing to gain intelligence or corporate secrets by impersonating high-ranking executives within a company. This method is standard in advanced email espionage attacks, including whaling and spear phishing attacks against CEOs and board members.

How does Email Spoofing Tools Work?

The email spoof tool simulates a spoofing attack using your email address and domain to test its vulnerability. An email is sent from an unauthorized server, appearing as though it is from your sending platform. The test email may look like a trusted sender, such as a doctor, government agency, or a relative.

The tool will analyze the test email to check for successful delivery, did the security measures worked as expected, and proper email authentication protocols. Tools help organizations determine if the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC domain authentication are working as expected.

Send Policy Framework (SPF)

SPF ensures that help is sent from a legitimate IP address—this is essential protection control. Hackers will set up proxy servers to send spoof emails as part of their impersonation strategy.

Example: v=spf1 ip4:1.2. 3.4 ip4:2.3. 4.5 include:thirdparty.com -all.

Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM)

DKIM places an encrypted header to the email to ensure the message hasn’t been tampered with during transit. If the header or message has been tampered with, DKIM authentication will show failed on the receiving end.

Example: “DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=dmarcly.com; h=content-transfer-encoding:content-type:from:mime-version:subject: x-feedback-id:to; s=s1; bh=jCC0oQBCKfJ10bCI3PCG52Zwowyeh1haGJPACkWN9F4=; b=GzLBVZ0M1hMt1Y7hVT+ajaNrswTv+/FFVMrcaixD70hpTJwAmNwZUKJIzLslSC+iWHby 9gm+yfx6Z1qnXIL6qgBPnlZD4zwyK4D3Umd1je82jniuD7RJWYDqJH0zL+EevCDdoVZGmT IlxzZB6v95bws6539z/5qee+Xmu5KYe4Y=”

Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC)

“A DMARC record is a DNS TXT record found in a domain’s DNS database. It informs receiving mail servers handling messages that do not align or authenticate with SPF and DKIM.”

DMARC returns to the domain owner detailing which messages are authenticating and, more importantly, how DMARC should handle the message. There are three considerations: reject, quarantine, or pass.

Example: v=DMARC1; p=reject; adkim=s; aspf=s; rua=mailto:email@yourdomain.com; ruf=mailto:email@yourdomain.com; pct=70; fo=1;

Why Someone Might Use an Email Spoofing Tool?

Detecting email spoofing can be difficult to detect. Spoofed emails can appear very authentic even to most email filtering solutions. Hackers will imitate the source’s design, language, and tone, making identifying a spoofed email challenging for an untrained individual. This method is dangerous because the better the impersonator can mimic an email, the more likely the recipient will become deceived.

Email spoofing tools help organizations use various email security authentication controls to ensure they function as expected. Email spoofing simulates various email spoofing attacks like a network penetration executed by white-hat testers.

Did the message bypass all or a portion of the email security architecture?

Did the message pass DKIM by fail at SPF? Should the message be rejected?

The tool helps organization validate their current controls to determine if they need to add additional security protection layers or adjust their DNS authentication configurations.

What are Some Common Features of Email Spoofing Tools?

Email spoofing tools need several components to better detect even the most elaborate messages. These tools must be able to create different attack simulations to validate which adaptive controls failed to stop a specific attack sequence. The tool must also record the results based on the various completed simulations.

1. The tool needs a place for you to input the test email address
2. The tool needs the ability to send your test email address from an unknown server to validate SPF.
3. The tool needs the ability to tamper with the header information to validate DKIM.
4. The tool also needs the flexibility to send follow-up emails with lookalike domains to validate DMARC.
5. The tool needs to capture historical output from the spoofing test.

This historical data will provide content to help educate the user community in identifying spoofed headers’ lookalike domains and how to check to see if the display name becomes altered.

What are the Differences Between the Various Email Spoofing Tools in the Market?

Most email spoofing testing tools function in similar ways to detect DNS spoofing. These tools require the testers to place an email into their various testing tools to determine if your organization’s email authentication works correctly. However, the tools may produce a different outcome and output.

Fraudmarc.com delivers a DMARC and SPF score.

https://fraudmarc.com/post/how-to-send-a-spoofed-phishing-email

Output:

Kevlarr.io

https://www.kevlarr.io/email-test?lang=en

Output:

Github.com

https://github.com/chenjj/espoofer

Espoofer is an open-source testing tool that bypasses email systems’ SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication. It is designed for mail server administrators and penetration testers looking for vulnerabilities in email servers and client-related email spoofing attacks.

What are the Benefits of Using a Reliable Email Spoofing Protection Capability?

Stopping email spoofing attacks requires more than just enabling DKIM, SPF, and DMARC configurations.

Why do organizations need additional layers of email and domain protection?

Note 1: The original SMTP has no built-in authentication mechanism. Anyone can spoof any identity in HELO/MAIL FROM and From.

Note 2: Neither SPF nor DKIM validate the “From” header displayed to the end user.

Note 3: If a hacker has spoofed the SPF IP address range and DKIM header tag, this will result in a fraudulent “pass” setting to DMARC.

Note 4: DMARC passed if it receives a pass from DKIM and SPF.

Note 5: Inconsistencies between SPF, DKIM, and DMARC could lead to security vulnerabilities.

Organizations wanting to stay ahead of the email spoofing attacks continue to invest in defensive strategies, including

• Antivirus Software,
• Anti-malware software,
• Patch Management,
• Email Encryption,
• Invest in Security Awareness Training for Employees.

Hackers use several attack strategies to bypass inbound email filters, such as altering headers or crafting creative subject lines.

How do you Protect Yourself from Falling Victim to Email Spoofing Attacks?

Email users recognizing a suspicious message should be cautious if they suspect they have received a spoofed message. Users have several options to determine if they have received a spoofed message.

1. When in Doubt, check the header using your mouse. Highlight over the header to check the display is consistent with the email address and domain. Always ensure that the email header contains accurate information such as the date, subject line, recipient’s and sender’s names, and email address, and verify that the email address is from a legitimate source and that all details align correctly.
2. If you suspect the email address to be fake or lookalike, check to see if the address matches the display name inside the header. If the display name doesn’t match the email address, mark the message as spoof or spam.
3. Read the email content carefully before answering. Spoofed emails frequently use alarming or aggressive messaging to create a sense of urgency and prompt impulsive actions. If the subject line and email content aim to scare or alarm you, it is likely a spoofed email.

Most importantly, be mindful of any message with the following content:

• If you receive an email from the IRS, FBI, CIA, or the President of the United States, this is most likely a spoof. These agencies, including the President, do not email the public.
• If you have received an offer letter without applying for a job, check the header and display to confirm if these match up before you respond.
• Any message requesting personal information is likely an email scam, phishing scam, or a combination of both. Mark the message as phishing or spam.

How do You Start with Email Spoofing Tools in 2024?

Organizations already deploying anti-spoofing countermeasures continue to see the rise in these messages bypassing legacy solutions. Adding standalone layers of protection against advanced email spoofing attempts continues to be ineffective.

Deploying email security gateways provided some protection against the dangers of email spoofing. However, as hackers incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), spoofing attacks have become more difficult to detect and prevent.

Trustifi, a global email security powered by AI, delivers exceptionally advanced email filtering with fully integrated layers of security to detect spoofing attacks. This advanced cloud-based solution scans every inbound message with three AI engines along with validating DNS authentication:

• BEC AI – Business Email Compromise
• Spam AI – Identifying spam messages
• Graymail AI – Identifying spam messages from legitimate sources.
• DMARC – DKIM- SPF Verified

Trustifi also validates the sender information, including the reply to and return path email addresses.

Trustifi integrated its advanced inbound email filtering protection with its outbound layer, including data loss prevention(DLP), email encryption, and data tokenization for content protection. Along with consolidating and integrating their advanced email protection layers, Trustifi consolidated the management monitoring and reporting functions into a consolidated console. This innovation helps organizations reduce the complexity and resources of their operations.