What is the watering hole attack?

The watering hole attack is an attack in which an attacker targets a particular group, such as an organization, industry, or region, to perpetrate the attack. The attacker first observes the visitors of a target website and the browsing habits of those visitors. And then, the attackers attack the websites that the visitors mostly visit. As a result, the visitors can be infected by malware, and thus, the attackers can impact the actual target.

The term “watering hole” is inspired by the predators in the natural world. The predators wait in ambush near a watering hole so that they can attack the desired prey in proper time. In the watering hole attack, the cyber attackers observe the visitors of a popular website and make an attack on them just like those predators in the natural world. Hence, the name the watering hole attack is derived.

How does the watering hole attack work?

In the watering hole attack, the attackers first decide on a target website. Then, using various malicious methods, the attackers gain strategic information on how to impact the target website in the most effective way. In many cases, the attackers keep an eye on the visitors of the target website and observe what websites those visitors mostly visit.

After that, the attackers find out what all of those websites have security vulnerabilities. And then they use various malicious methods to attack those websites.

In most cases, the attackers inject malicious scripts or HTML into those vulnerable websites and redirect those visitors to a website controlled by the attackers. As a result, the attackers can now spread malware to the systems of those visitors using various methods like drive-by downloads, etc.

Many a time, the attackers infect those innocent visitors with Remote Access Trojans (RAT) or spyware so that they can control their systems and spy on their behavior.

Who can be the target of watering hole attacks?

Any group like an organization, industry, region, or company can be the target of this attack. The following groups are mostly targeted by the attackers :

• Various businesses
• Human Rights groups
• Government Offices

The impacts of watering hole attacks

In the watering hole attack, the attackers mostly infect the visitors with RATs or spyware. So, the attackers can control the systems of the visitors and spy on them. And, when these visitors visit the …