Re: "Google-Proxy" servers & Phishing Campaigns

[Frank Barton <bartonf () HUSSON EDU>]

Just to put everything together from the various folks that have responded
- and I have also gotten some non-authoritative information back from
Google.

Some of the possible causes:

   - Chrome Data Saver proxying the clicks because they are http (not
   https) links
      - I've done some quick testing, have not been able to
      independently verify
   - Google Link Protection checking the links in the UI (Google SEs
   thought this was a possibility)
      - I've also done some quick testing, and not been able to verify
      independently
   - Google checking links in messages that have been forwarded (Google SEs
   thought this was also a possibility)
      - I've also done some quick testing, and not been able to verify
      independently
   - Google intercepting clicks and displaying a warning
      - Not sure how to test this

I'm going to keep digging, but I did want to thank everybody for their
insight.

Frank

On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 9:33 AM Frank Barton <bartonf () husson edu> wrote:

> Hi folks (and I apologize for the cross posting),
>
> We've run into something interesting, and I'm wondering if anybody has any
> insight.
>
> We use KnowBe4 as our Phishing/training/testing vendor, and have seen a
> lot of "clicks" coming from the 66.102.8.0/24 subnet. These machines are
> all identified as "Google-Proxy-<IP>.google.com"
>
> We've reached out to KnowBe4 about this, and the response we got was
> effectively, "yeah, and?" on the theory that a click is a click, no matter
> where it came from. In some cases, I would believe that the users had
> clicked, but in others I believe the users when they say that they didn't
> click on the links.
>
> Has anybody else seen this? Does anybody know what might be triggering
> these requests to the unique URLs? does anybody have any insight into what
> the google-proxy servers are used for?
>
> Over half of the "clicks" are coming from these IP addresses. This feels
> very much like the proverbial "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence,
> three [or more] is enemy action", and I don't like things I can't explain.
>
> Thank You
> Frank
>
> --
> Frank Barton, MBA
> Security+, ACMT, MCP
> IT Systems Administrator
> Husson University


-- 
Frank Barton, MBA
Security+, ACMT, MCP
IT Systems Administrator
Husson University

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