Phishing With A Darknet: Imitation of Onion Services

• Published in: eCrime Researchers Summit pp. 1 - 13
• Main Authors: Barr-Smith, Frederick, Wright, Joss
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 16.11.2020
• Subjects: Aggregates; Cloning; Government; Law; Phishing; Privacy; Redundancy
• ISSN: 2159-1245
• DOI: 10.1109/eCrime51433.2020.9493262

In this work we analyse the use of malicious mimicry and cloning of darknet marketplaces and other 'onion services' as means for phishing, akin to traditional 'typosquatting' on the web. This phenomenon occurs due to the complex trust relationships in Tor's onion services, and particularly the complex webs of trust enabled by darknet markets and similar services. To do so, we built a modular scraper tool to identify networks of maliciously cloned darknet marketplaces; in addition to other characteristics of onion services, in aggregate. The networks of phishing sites identified by this scraper were then subject to clustering and analysis to identify the method of phishing and the networks of ownership across these sites. We present a novel discovery mechanism for sites, means for clustering and analysis of onion service phishing and clone sites, and an analysis of their spectrum of sophistication.