Pierluigi Paganini
March 31, 2025
Infoblox researchers discovered a new phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform that generated multiple phishing kits, called Morphing Meerkat, using DNS mail exchange (MX) records to deliver fake login pages and targeting over 100 brands.
Threat actors are exploiting DNS techniques to enhance phishing attacks, using MX records to dynamically serve spoofed login pages. They also abuse open redirects, compromised domains, and distribute stolen credentials via Telegram.
The phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform behind Morphing Meerkat kits has been active for at least five years. It consistently employs the same tactics and core resources, yet its use of MX records for phishing has remained largely unreported.
The researchers believe that Morphing Meerkat has sent thousands of spam messages. Attackers sent messages from relatively centralized email servers, mainly belonging to internet service providers (ISPs) iomart (United Kingdom) and HostPapa (United States). The consistent tactics suggest a centralized phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform rather than multiple independent actors, as email activity is not widely distributed across providers.
Morphing Meerkat enables large-scale phishing and spam campaigns, it uses compromised WordPress sites, open redirects, and MX records to tailor fake login pages. The platform bypasses security with obfuscated code, dynamic translations, and redirects suspicious users to real sites. Stolen credentials are distributed via email and chat.
“We discovered cyber campaigns that used the phishing kits as early as January 2020. These early versions were only capable of serving phishing web templates disguised as five email brands: Gmail, Outlook, AOL, Office 365, and Yahoo. They also had no translation module, so the kits could only display English text in the phishing templates.” reads the report published by Infoblox. “Over time, Morphing Meerkat expanded the library of templates and we currently see 114 different brand designs. By July 2023 kits could dynamically load phishing pages based on DNS MX records. Today, the phishing kits can also dynamically translate text based on the victim’s web profile and target users in over a dozen different languages.”
The PhaaS platform sends spam emails with malicious links, targeting users globally, including high-profile professionals. The phishing kits use DNS MX records to serve dynamic login pages and can redirect victims to real sites for security evasion. Attackers adapt phishing pages into over a dozen languages using a JavaScript translation module, enabling large-scale attacks across different regions.
Phishing emails use generic or spoofed logos, often impersonating banks or shipping services with scare tactics. To evade detection, they embed links in compromised sites, URL shorteners, and abuse DoubleClick’s open redirects.
The platform tailors phishing pages by dynamically loading HTML based on the victim’s email provider’s MX records, using Cloudflare and Google DNS over HTTPS.
Morphing Meerkat exploits open redirects on ad tech platforms like Google DoubleClick, using fake domains and compromised sites. It queries the victim’s email domain’s MX record via DoH (Google/Cloudflare) to load a tailored phishing page with the email pre-filled for credibility.
Morphing Meerkat’s PhaaS platform blocks security analysis, obfuscates code, and dynamically serves phishing pages based on DNS MX records. The platform supports more than 114 login templates and harvests credentials via email, PHP scripts, AJAX, or Telegram, often deleting evidence in real time.
Morphing Meerkat exfiltrates stolen credentials via AJAX requests, PHP scripts, or Telegram bot webhooks. To ensure accuracy, victims see an “Invalid Password” error, prompting them to re-enter credentials. After submission, they are redirected to the legitimate login page to avoid suspicion.
“Morphing Meerkat is another example of a long-running operation that is difficult to detect at scale. They know where security blind spots are and have been exploiting them via open redirects on adtech, DoH communication, and popular file sharing services.” concludes the report.
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