Doppelganger domain

Short description: Form of domain name hijack

A doppelganger domain is a domain spelled identical to a legitimate fully qualified domain name (FQDN) but missing the dot between host/subdomain and domain, to be used for malicious purposes.

Overview

Typosquatting's traditional attack vector is through the web to distribute malware or harvest credentials. Other vectors such as email and remote access services such as SSH, RDP, and VPN also can be leveraged. In a whitepaper by Godai Group on doppelganger domains, they demonstrated that numerous emails can be harvested without anyone noticing.

Example

For email address "ktrout@fi­nance.corpu­dyne.com", the doppel­ganger domain would be "finance­corpu­dyne.com"; hence, an email acci­den­tally addressed to "ktrout@financecorpudyne.com" (i.e. with the dot between "finance" and "corpu­dyne" having acci­den­tally been omitted) would go to the doppel­ganger domain rather than to the legitimate user.

See also

• Domain Name System (DNS) – System to identify resources on a network
• Phishing – Form of social engineering
• Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) – Process of dispute resolution

External links

• "Researchers' Typosquatting Stole 20 GB of E-Mail From Fortune 500". Wired. 8 Sep 2011. https://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/09/doppelganger-domains/. 
• "Bad spelling opens up security loophole". BBC. 12 Sep 2011. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14842691.