The clickfix approach is a type of social engineering where attackers trick users into performing tasks that seem reasonable and legal. Rather than using content that looks harmful to a victim, the attackers create a situation that seems to be the usual part of troubleshooting, verification, or fixing the system.
It becomes possible because of the desire of people to quickly deal with the problems they face. If someone is asked to copy, paste, run or authorize anything to fix a problem, they will do it right away without any doubt.
Why ClickFix Approach Is Working
ClickFix strategy makes it difficult to separate users’ actions from the attacker’s activities. Such attacks usually look like the messages from the help center or browser errors, while users think they resolve an innocuous issue.
How To Protect Against This Technique
There needs to be education for users to take their time if an instruction sounds weird. Educate security personnel on verifying instructions via official channels and refraining from carrying out urgent corrective actions via unreliable sources. There also needs to be technical controls on what happens in case of any user error.
Lesson Learned
The ClickFix attacks show us that social engineering techniques are evolving. The solution lies beyond awareness.
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