Operation Fake KickOff: Recruiter-Impersonation AitM/BitB Toolkit Abuses Salesforce, SendGrid, Zoho and Render to Harvest Google Workspace Credentials and Bypass MFA

Operation Fake KickOff (TL-2026-1388), also tracked as Operation Fake KickOff, is a high-severity phishing campaign, first published 2026-07-15. It has no confirmed attribution, affects Google Google Workspace / Gmail, maps to 26 MITRE ATT&CK techniques (T1005, T1036, T1041), and is covered by 9 detection rules and 30 indicators of compromise.

Key facts for TL-2026-1388

Threat ID
TL-2026-1388
Also known as
Operation Fake KickOff, O-UNC-038 (overlap)
Severity
HIGH
Status
ACTIVE
Category
PHISHING
First published
2026-07-15
Last reviewed
2026-07-15
Attribution confidence
MEDIUM
Motivation
FINANCIAL
Target sectors
humanresourcesconsulting, recruiting, marketing, technology, hospitality, airlinestravel, foodandbeverage, apparelluxuryretail, entertainmentsports, consulting, finance
Target regions
Global, North America, Europe
Detection rules
9
Indicators of compromise
30

Malware and tooling in Operation Fake KickOff

Malware and tooling: Calendly (spoofed interface), Google Calendar (spoofed)

A multi-stage phishing operation, tracked by Intel 471 as overlapping Okta's O-UNC-038 cluster, impersonates recruiters from 52+ global brands to lure marketing and HR professionals to fake Calendly/Google Calendar interview-scheduling portals. A React-based adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) toolkit using the Browser-in-the-Browser (BitB) technique renders a fake Google sign-in popup, intercepts credentials and live session data, and defeats email, SMS, TOTP (Google Authenticator) and Google Prompt MFA in real time before exfiltrating stolen data to Telegram bots.

How Operation Fake KickOff works

Operation Fake KickOff is an ongoing, financially-motivated credential-harvesting campaign first tracked by Intel 471 and active since at least April 2025 (cluster registration activity from June 5, 2025), with a FIFA World Cup 2026-themed pivot detected June 24, 2026 and public disclosure via BleepingComputer on July 6, 2026. The operation systematically abuses legitimate SaaS sales, marketing and cloud infrastructure -- Salesforce Marketing Cloud/ExactTarget (exct.net), SendGrid, Zoho, the PeopleForce HR platform, and the real-estate CRM wiseagent.com -- as redirect chains to distribute recruiter-impersonation phishing emails while evading email security controls that trust these reputable domains. Emails spoof real recruiter names and photographs lifted from LinkedIn and direct marketing/HR-adjacent job seekers to typosquatted domains (e.g., fifahr-careers.com, adidas-hiring.com) hosting a Calendly-style interview-scheduling interface. Victims are prompted to authenticate via 'Continue with Google' using a corporate account, which loads a browser-in-the-browser (BitB) fake Google sign-in window -- HTML/CSS rendered inside the page rather than a real OS-level browser window, making it visually indistinguishable from a legitimate popup. The phishing kit is built on the React framework and, per Intel 471's analysis of inline code comments, emojis and structural neatness, was very likely generated with the assistance of generative-AI coding tools. Once credentials are submitted to /api/login, the phishing frontend opens a persistent 3-second polling loop against /check_response?session_id= to maintain live, bidirectional communication with an adversary-controlled backend, letting the operator view captured credentials in real time and interactively push follow-on MFA-bypass prompts to the victim's browser. Four dedicated components handle MFA interception: an /email endpoint spoofing Google's two-step email verification prompt, a /2fa endpoint requesting a Google Authenticator TOTP code, an /sms endpoint requesting an SMS confirmation code, and a /tap endpoint that simulates a high-fidelity Google Prompt push notification, polling every 500ms for an attacker-supplied verification_number and instructing the victim to approve it in the real Gmail mobile app. A hardcoded credential filter discards personal webmail domains (Google, Yahoo, MSN, iCloud, Outlook, Hotmail, ProtonMail, AOL) so only corporate Google Workspace accounts are retained. The kit also queries the third-party ipwho.is geolocation service to enrich victim telemetry (IP address, geolocation) before POSTing the full capture to /api/login. Infrastructure comprises 232 dedicated phishing domains (predominantly .com, using brand+keyword naming patterns such as -careers, -jobs, -hiring, -recruiting, -hr, -talent, -calendly, -schedulecall) registered through Hosting Concepts BV, Trustname.com, Name.com, Nicenic International Group Co. Ltd. and Key-Systems GmbH, and hosted on Amazon CloudFront/EC2 with domains also generated via the Netlify AI platform. Exfiltration and C2 rely on 80 backend instances hosted on Render's onrender.com PaaS, with stolen credentials and session data forwarded to Telegram bots for real-time operator access. The campaign spans 15 industry verticals and impersonates at least 52 organizations -- roughly 54% of infrastructure targets HR consulting, with Robert Half Inc. and Aquent LLC accounting for ~50% of observed domains alone. Broader brand impersonation documented by Team Cymru/BushidoUK and Malwarebytes includes Netflix, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Red Bull, Adidas, Louis Vuitton, Sephora, Levi's, Adobe, ManpowerGroup, McKinsey & Company, OpenAI, Marriott, Omnicom Group, American Airlines, Booking.com, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and FIFA, primarily targeting marketing professionals and entry-level job seekers. Intel 471 assesses strong overlap with Okta's previously reported O-UNC-038 cluster (December 2025 advisory): both target Google Workspace corporate credentials, use BitB (including a separate Facebook-themed BitB variant tracked by Okta across 143 domains via Vercel and registrar.eu/AWS infrastructure), exfiltrate to Telegram bots, abuse Salesforce ExactTarget, and share overlapping impersonated-brand and domain-keyword lists. A key technical distinction: Okta's Google Workspace-focused O-UNC-038 sub-cluster used Socket.IO and Cloudflare-fronted static landing pages for exfiltration, whereas Intel 471 did not observe Socket.IO usage in Operation Fake KickOff, indicating either a distinct toolkit branch or an evolution of the shared actor's tradecraft. No CVE or software vulnerability is involved; this is a pure social-engineering and AitM/session-hijacking technique. Recommended defenses include enforcing least-privilege on corporate accounts, deploying phishing-resistant MFA (FIDO2 security keys such as Titan Security Key, or passkeys) for Google Workspace, monitoring egress to *.onrender.com, training users to drag suspected authentication popups outside the browser window to unmask BitB replicas, and alerting HR/recruiting staff to LinkedIn-based reconnaissance and impersonation of their identities.

MITRE ATT&CK techniques used in TL-2026-1388

Collection

T1005 Data from Local System; T1074 Data Staged

Defense Evasion

T1036 Masquerading

Exfiltration

T1041 Exfiltration Over C2 Channel; T1567 Exfiltration Over Web Service

Credential Access

T1056 Input Capture; T1111 Multi-Factor Authentication Interception; T1539 Steal Web Session Cookie; T1557 Adversary-in-the-Middle; T1606 Forge Web Credentials; T1621 Multi-Factor Authentication Request Generation

Command and Control

T1071 Application Layer Protocol; T1090 Proxy; T1102 Web Service

Execution

T1204 User Execution

Impact

T1531 Account Access Removal

lateral-movement

T1550 Use Alternate Authentication Material

Initial Access

T1566 Phishing

Resource Development

T1583 Acquire Infrastructure; T1584 Compromise Infrastructure; T1585 Establish Accounts; T1587 Develop Capabilities

Reconnaissance

T1589 Gather Victim Identity Information; T1593 Search Open Websites/Domains

reconnaissance

T1590 Gather Victim Network Information

stealth

T1684.001 Impersonation

Affected products and versions in Operation Fake KickOff

  • Google — Google Workspace / Gmail
    Vulnerable versions: all - technique targets authentication flow, not software version
  • Multiple — Corporate credential/session-token holders across 15 industry verticals
    Vulnerable versions: N/A - social engineering technique

Remediation for Operation Fake KickOff

Immediate actions

  • Block/alert on egress traffic to *.onrender.com from corporate endpoints
  • Block or sinkhole known Operation Fake KickOff phishing domains at DNS/proxy layer
  • Search email gateway logs for messages routed through exct.net (Salesforce Marketing Cloud), SendGrid, Zoho, PeopleForce, or wiseagent.com redirect chains impersonating recruiters
  • Force session token revocation and password resets for any corporate Google Workspace account that interacted with a suspected phishing domain
  • Alert HR/recruiting and marketing staff about LinkedIn-based reconnaissance and recruiter impersonation using their names/photos

Workarounds

  • Train users that no legitimate hiring process requires authentication through an unfamiliar third-party interview-scheduling page
  • Instruct users to verify authentication popups are real OS-level browser windows by attempting to drag them off-screen or onto a second monitor

Longer-term hardening

  • Deploy phishing-resistant MFA (FIDO2 hardware security keys such as Titan Security Key, or passkeys) for all Google Workspace accounts
  • Enforce least-privilege access on corporate SaaS and Google Workspace accounts to limit blast radius of credential compromise
  • Implement conditional access / device-bound session tokens to reduce value of AitM-intercepted session cookies
  • Deploy DNS/network monitoring for typosquat domain patterns combining employer brand names with recruiting keywords (-careers, -hiring, -jobs, -talent, -hr, -calendly)
  • Establish recurring user-awareness training on BitB detection (drag suspected login popups outside the browser window/off-screen to unmask fake popups)

Weaknesses (CWE) in Operation Fake KickOff

CWE-451, CWE-290, CWE-1021

Timeline of Operation Fake KickOff

  • Operation Fake KickOff phishing activity begins per Intel 471 initial-campaign observation.
  • Tracked phishing domain registration cluster begins, per Intel 471 infrastructure timeline.
  • Okta Threat Intelligence publishes advisory on overlapping cluster O-UNC-038, covering BitB Facebook-themed and Google Workspace-themed phishing sub-clusters using Telegram and Socket.IO exfiltration.
  • FIFA World Cup 2026-themed phishing pivot detected, using fifahr-careers.com and related sports-brand lures.
  • BleepingComputer publishes first public report on the Adidas-impersonation phishing wave, citing Team Cymru researcher Will Thomas / BushidoUK IOC gist.
  • Malwarebytes, Security Boulevard, Techlicious, CybersecurityNews, GBHackers and The Epoch Times publish follow-up coverage detailing Netflix, Coca-Cola, Adobe, OpenAI, Marriott, McKinsey and other impersonated brands.
  • Gen Digital publishes analysis of fake hiring pages abusing the FIFA brand and other major brands.
  • Intel 471 publishes full technical analysis 'Operation Fake KickOff,' detailing 232 domains, 80 C2 servers on Render, AitM/BitB toolkit internals, MFA-bypass scripts, and overlap with Okta's O-UNC-038 cluster; operation still assessed active.

Sources cited for Operation Fake KickOff

Threats related to Operation Fake KickOff

Detection coverage for TL-2026-1388

As of 2026-07-15, Threadlinqs Intelligence publishes 9 detection rule(s) for TL-2026-1388 across Splunk SPL, Microsoft KQL and Sigma, covering 30 indicator(s) of compromise. The whole corpus is readable without an account; a free account unlocks full detection query text in Splunk SPL, Microsoft KQL and Sigma; paid tiers add raw indicator values, correlation and the MCP server. Threadlinqs MCP server · View plans.

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