Threat reportPhishingTL-2026-4714
MadApe: Previously Undocumented Microsoft Device Code Phishing Kit Using Business-Themed PDF Lures and Fake Document-Sharing Pages
MadApe: Previously Undocumented Microsoft Device Code (TL-2026-4714), also tracked as Mad Ape, is a high-severity phishing campaign, first published 2026-10-29. It has no confirmed attribution, affects Microsoft Microsoft Entra ID / Microsoft 365 (OAuth 2.0 device code, maps to 10 MITRE ATT&CK techniques (T1204.001, T1480, T1528), and is covered by 9 detection rules and 30 indicators of compromise.
- Severity
- HIGHAssessed severity
- CVEs
- 0None referenced
- Techniques
- 10MITRE ATT&CK
- Actors
- 0Not attributed
- Detection rules
- 9SPL · KQL · Sigma
- IOCs
- 30Indicators of compromise
Key facts for TL-2026-4714
- Threat ID
- TL-2026-4714
- Also known as
- Mad Ape
- Severity
- HIGH
- Status
- ACTIVE
- Category
- PHISHING
- First published
- Last reviewed
- Attribution confidence
- LOW
- Motivation
- UNKNOWN
- Target sectors
- financial services, health, logistics, technology, real estate
- Target regions
- israel, Multinational
- Detection rules
- 9
- Indicators of compromise
- 30
How MadApe: Previously Undocumented Microsoft Device Code works
Group-IB documents MadApe, a previously undocumented phishing kit that abuses the Microsoft OAuth 2.0 device code flow: business-themed PDF lures lead through redirect pages and human-verification gates to fake SharePoint/OneDrive/Teams/Adobe/DocuSign pages that show a device code and send the victim to the legitimate microsoft.com/devicelogin portal, so the operator's application receives the victim's tokens. Lures were seen in nine languages (Hebrew first identified), and the infrastructure spans 155 root domains tied to a single operator.
MadApe is a phishing kit documented by Group-IB (published 2026-10-29; the article's key-dates text says 2026-10-28) that targets Microsoft 365 / Entra ID accounts through device code phishing. The user never types a password into a counterfeit page. Instead the victim is persuaded to enter an attacker-supplied device code on the genuine Microsoft device login portal, which authorizes an attacker-controlled application and issues it access tokens. Because authentication happens on a legitimate Microsoft domain, credential-harvesting page detection and many MFA controls do not trigger.
Attack chain: a phishing email carries a business-themed PDF lure (SharePoint-styled; payment reports, invoices, contracts, proposals, account statements, voicemail notifications). The PDF links to a configurable intermediary redirect page presented as a 'Secure Document Access - SharePoint' portal, with JavaScript-embedded target URLs and a loading overlay, which lets the operator rotate downstream destinations without changing templates. A custom client-side human-verification gate follows (CAPTCHA variants, image selection, press-and-hold), with cookie-based session handling, no external library dependencies and randomized challenge types per visit. The Device Code phishing page then displays a dynamically injected Microsoft device code impersonating SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Adobe Acrobat, DocuSign or a Microsoft sign-in page. A cc() function copies the code to the clipboard and notifies the backend at /api/code/entered; an 'Open File' button sends the victim to microsoft.com/devicelogin. The backend polls Microsoft's token endpoint server-side, and /api/code/status/<ID> is polled by the page so it can redirect the victim once authentication completes. Backend numeric identifiers observed incrementing across requests (4024, 4026, 4029, 4031, 4033, 4036) are described as tracking records, not confirmed compromises.
Anti-analysis: right-click suppression, blocking of F12 / Ctrl+Shift+I/J/C / Ctrl+U, and client-side verification gates that stop automated scanners. Decoy sites (a 'C2S Logistics' business template and variants for industrial services, technology and real estate that share identical HTML, class names and stylesheets) are hosted on the same infrastructure. Third-party compromised hosts supplemented operator-registered domains.
Infrastructure: a dataset of 155 root domains, with phishing components on 97 and 58 staged but unused at analysis time. Dynadot registered 133 of 154 domains (86.4%); 105 of 152 domains (69%) shared identical WHOIS creation timestamps, the largest batch being 10 domains at 2026-08-18 23:48:21 UTC. Registrations concentrated June-August 2026, peaking in the week of 17 August (26 domains) and continuing into October. Primary hosting is ASGHOSTNET GmbH (Germany, AS12586) with Cloudflare in front; one example IP is 5.230.194.87. Subdomains (167 observed) often embed organization or individual names (109, 65%) or security/service terms (51, 31%), with recurring cgi-/otp- prefixes and -ox/-oi suffixes. A 'Mad Ape - Login' operator panel was found on itencrypted.co, householdwares.co, liva-fit.com, uouso.net and wbconnecticut.net, on the same infrastructure as the phishing and decoy pages; the earliest panel instance was seen on 2026-08-19. The report points to a single operator and names no actor, campaign or victims.
Post-compromise: the report notes that stolen tokens could enable mailbox access, SharePoint/OneDrive downloads, OAuth consent grant abuse, device registration, Primary Refresh Token issuance, inbox rules, forwarding configuration and onward phishing from compromised accounts. These are potential follow-on abuses, not observed activity. Hebrew-language lures were identified first; targeting includes Israel and multinational organizations across financial services, healthcare, logistics, technology and real estate. Group-IB supplied two YARA rules (GIB_MadApe_Phishing_Page, GIB_MadApe_Verification_Gate). Severity is an analyst judgement. Independent corroboration of the MadApe name was not found; facts come from the Group-IB article, with device-code-flow context from Microsoft and press sources.
MITRE ATT&CK techniques used in TL-2026-4714
Execution
Defense Evasion
T1480 Execution Guardrails; T1684.001 Impersonation
Credential Access
T1528 Steal Application Access Token
Lateral Movement
T1550.001 Application Access Token
Initial Access
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment; T1566.002 Spearphishing Link
Resource Development
Affected products and versions in MadApe: Previously Undocumented Microsoft Device Code
- Microsoft — Microsoft Entra ID / Microsoft 365 (OAuth 2.0 device code flow)
Vulnerable versions: Tenants permitting device code flow authentication
Fixed in: Tenants blocking device code flow via Conditional Access
Remediation for MadApe: Previously Undocumented Microsoft Device Code
Immediate actions
- Block or sinkhole the MadApe domains, IP 5.230.194.87 and the listed URLs at email, proxy and DNS layers
- Hunt Entra ID sign-in logs for device code flow authentications and revoke sessions and refresh tokens for any account involved
- Search proxy/DNS/EDR telemetry for requests to /api/code/entered and /api/code/status/ and for 'Secure Document Access - SharePoint' page titles
- Look for microsoft.com/devicelogin access preceded by visits to the phishing URLs
- Review device registrations, OAuth consent grants, inbox rules and mail forwarding created after any device code sign-in
Workarounds
- Block device code flow with a Conditional Access policy (Conditions > Authentication Flows > Device code flow > Block access), starting in report-only mode and excluding documented legitimate use cases and break-glass accounts
- Alert on device code authentication from hosting providers or anonymization services
Longer-term hardening
- Enable Continuous Access Evaluation and risk-based Conditional Access
- Maintain an inventory of legitimate device code flow use
- Detonate PDF attachments and follow their embedded links in an isolated environment before delivery
- Train users that device codes are for limited-input devices and that unsolicited code prompts must be reported
- Deploy the Group-IB YARA rules GIB_MadApe_Phishing_Page and GIB_MadApe_Verification_Gate
Timeline of MadApe: Previously Undocumented Microsoft Device Code
- MadApe-related domain registrations begin in June 2026 (month-level date per Group-IB), concentrated June-August 2026.
- Week of 17 August 2026 is the peak domain-registration week, with 26 domains registered.
- Largest batch of 10 domains registered with identical WHOIS creation timestamp 2026-08-18 23:48:21 UTC.
- Earliest 'Mad Ape - Login' operator panel instance observed.
- Domain registrations continue into October 2026 (month-level date), with a shift from .com/.net pairing to .com/.co.
- Key-dates text in Group-IB's article cites 28 October 2026, while the page header shows 29 October.
- Group-IB publishes 'MadApe: The Code That Opens the Door', with YARA rules and an infrastructure dataset of 155 root domains.
Sources cited for MadApe: Previously Undocumented Microsoft Device Code
- MadApe: The Code That Opens the Door (Group-IB)
- Storm-2372 conducts device code phishing campaign (Microsoft Threat Intelligence)
- Block authentication flows with Conditional Access policy (Microsoft Learn)
- Device code phishing attacks surge 37x as new kits spread online (BleepingComputer)
- EvilTokens made phishing-as-a-service look easy. Then it got taken down (Security Affairs)
Detection coverage for TL-2026-4714
As of 2026-10-29, Threadlinqs Intelligence publishes 9 detection rule(s) for TL-2026-4714 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.