Salty2FA recently emerged as a prominent phishing conduit, affecting organizations in the United States and throughout Europe. This sophisticated toplogin phishing kit abuse victims’ various two factor authentication 2fa methods. In doing so, it allows attackers to gain access to corporate accounts more easily and effectively. Salty2FA provides a phishing as a service (PhaaS) approach. This sinister method increases the speed and efficiency with which cybercriminals are able to test exploits on multiple industries.
Researcher at ANY.RUN first found Salty2FA in late July 2023. Since then, it has become well-known for its multi-stage execution chain and infrastructure designed to be highly evasive. User credentials are not the sole capability of the kit, as it is able to capture 2FA codes, exposing organization to significant risk.
Targeted Industries and Regions
Salty2FA’s collective reach spans the gamut of industry. It especially zeroes in on finance, healthcare, government, logistics, energy, IT consulting, education and construction as industries with high concentration in the US. In Europe, it has reportedly focused on telecom, chemicals, energy—including solar—industrial manufacturing, real estate, and consulting services. This wide range of targets shows that no sector is immune from this new menace.
The kit has already sparked incredible movement in US and EU regions. The reports show that businesses in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece and Switzerland are most at risk. Salty2FA’s flexibility and ability to seep into multiple sectors emphasizes its capacity for widespread destruction.
Technical Mechanisms Behind Salty2FA
Salty2FA uses advanced methods to avoid detection and carry out these attacks. One interesting thing about it though is that it uses a completely Microsoft-branded login page, which is then wrapped in Cloudflare mitigations. By taking this approach, it’s able to avoid traditional automated filters that most organizations have in place to identify phishing emails. By imitating trustworthy services, Salty2FA raises the odds that employees will unknowingly share sensitive information.
On top of that, the phishing kit employs an email lure with subject lines designed to create urgency. For instance, emails titled “External Review Request: 2025 Payment Correction” prompt recipients to act quickly, reducing skepticism and encouraging them to enter their credentials on the fraudulent site. As soon as users enter their information, Salty2FA can collect and exfiltrate this sensitive data to servers operated by malicious actors.
Ongoing Threat and Countermeasures
It has become increasingly clear since its emergence in late July that Salty2FA remains a serious danger. In fact, researchers point out that it creates dozens of new data analysis sessions each day, giving testimony to the continuing and powerful activity. The kit’s design is meant to illustrate a growing, more technical phishing and hacker trend that is making traditional defenses more and more useless.
Enterprises are more strongly recommended than ever to increase their cybersecurity posture in light of this continuing evolution of the threat landscape. Invest in comprehensive training opportunities for all staff to identify phishing attacks. Implement modern security strategies that go beyond traditional 2FA. Cybercriminals are already looking for ways to circumvent those advancements, and organizations need to be ever-watchful and adaptable.