Unmasking phishing pages: the power of favicon hunting

Phishing attacks continue to be a pervasive threat in the realm of information security, targeting individuals and organizations alike. As specialized professionals in the field, it is essential to stay updated on the latest phishing trends and techniques. This article presents an overview of the most abused favicons in the urldna database.

understanding favicons as phishing indicators:

Favicons, the small icons associated with websites, play a crucial role in phishing detection. Attackers often replicate legitimate favicons to create deceptive phishing pages, aiming to trick users into believing they are interacting with trusted websites. By familiarizing ourselves with commonly abused favicons, we can enhance our ability to identify and combat phishing attempts effectively.

urldna most abused favicons: charting phishing trends:

Based on an analysis of recent phishing campaigns, the following chart showcases the top 10 abused favicons in our databases:

Favicon	Abused Brand	Phash
	Microsoft	b34cb3b34c4cb391
	DHL	be6cc1913e6c9193
	Facebook	9cb344474e6c1b9b
	STEAM	d43a23ec5c05e1f9
	PUBG	be044dcd873ba196
	BET365	c1f53e2278cb4696
	ROBLOX	c4690b6f26cd7923
	WELLSFARGO	c0b93f46c4bb91d1
	M&T Bank	aa54d5af2e90417d
	DISCORD	92cb3d658acb9aa1

All product names, logos, brands, trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

How to search for a Favicon on urldna:

In order to find website in urldna database that have a specific favicon you can use this query:

favicon: Favicon hash

It's important to note that the hash is phash.
Here also a quick script in python that you can use to calculate the phash of a favicon:

from PIL import Image
import imagehash

# Load the image
image_path = 'path_to_image.jpg'  # Insert the image path here
image = Image.open(image_path)

# Calculate the pHash
phash = imagehash.phash(image)

# Print the pHash
print("pHash:", phash)

You can use the hash that you obtain to query for results on urldna database.

Happy Hunting!!

Photo by Philipp Katzenberger on Unsplash