Social Engineering - Combining Into a Simplified Technique • blog.network-sec

Introduction

The essence of social engineering lies in subtly guiding your target through a conversation without them ever realizing your true intentions. A combination of emotion-first strategy, hooking, and exchanged context forms a powerful toolkit for the adept social engineer. In the previous article we already explained these approaches in detail, now we’ll show how to combine them into a Simplified technique.

Emotion-First Strategy

At its core, the emotion-first strategy leverages the target’s immediate emotional response to engage them deeply from the outset. This approach is particularly effective when a direct hook might be absent.

Mnemonic: Keep em Happy

Hooking

Hooking involves grabbing your target’s attention with a statement or question that directly involves their interests, fears, or desires. When you don’t have a hook, you might instead try using a shock moment.

Mnemonic: Sword of Damocles

Exchanged Context

Exchanged context is about subtly shifting the conversation to areas that can reveal the information you’re seeking, without directly asking for it.

Mnemonic: Hide your Agenda

Here are a few more examples how you might apply the technique, as it’s a bit more difficult than the rest.

Example 1

You want to confirm if a social media account belongs to Mr. Smith. Instead of asking directly, you notice a photo of a model plane and ask, “When did you get into model plane building?” This seemingly off-topic question can confirm ownership based on his knowledge and response.

Example 2

When you need an email address from a target, you could fake a call from a service provider (e.g. in Germany 1&1 or DTAG) and tell a story about incidently blocked SMTP ports: “Yes, our filters are designed to block Spam coming from rogue mailservers but right now we have a lot of reports that partner services seem to be blocked, like GMail or GMX. Do you have an account with any of these providers? Did you notice any service interruption with any email provider today? If you agree we would like to send you a test email to check if your area is also affected. We take this issue very seriously, if you stay in line after the test we’ll offer you full cashback for one month for your current contract, also in regards to GDPR you’ll remain anonymous throughout the process and your data will be deleted immediately after the testing. What email address could I send the test email to?

Strategic Deception

The art of social engineering also involves maintaining a specific tone and employing strategic deception. Your conversation should flow naturally, making the target feel at ease, while carefully constructed lies weave the fabric of your interaction.

Fabricate stories or scenarios that align with your goals but do not reveal your true intentions. For instance, if probing for personal details, you might weave in a false but plausible story about needing advice on a similar issue.

Shock Moment

If you don’t have a hook, you could use a shock moment or strong distraction instead - don’t go overboard with that though.

If you add something personal into the shock, for example when you know the target’s nice car is parked out of sight and you claim to have details about an accident that happened to the car just minutes ago (of course you made that up) will hook the target into thinking, he needs information from you and for that reason engage in the conversation.

The Streamlined Technique: Contextual Echo

Overview:

“Contextual Echo” is a technique where you mirror the target’s interests and current context to create a resonant dialogue that naturally leads to your objectives. It combines emotion-first strategies, hooking, and exchanged context into a single, fluid motion.

How It Works:

Initiate with Empathy (Emotion-First Strategy): Begin by engaging on an emotional level, focusing on creating a connection based on shared feelings or experiences relevant to the target’s current context.
Mirror and Validate (Hooking): Reflect back what the target is interested in or concerned about, validating their feelings or opinions to deepen the connection and engagement. This is often used with either something you can hang over their heads or using a Shock Moment
Subtle Shifts (Exchanged Context): Gradually and subtly guide the conversation towards the context that serves your information gathering needs, using the established emotional connection and engagement as a bridge.

The Technique in Action:

Start Point: Notice a detail in your target’s behavior, environment, or online profile that resonates with a broader, relatable experience or emotion.
Engagement: “I couldn’t help but notice [detail]… It’s funny how it reminds me of [relatable experience or emotion]. What’s your take on it?”
Deepening Connection: “Yeah, I totally get that. It’s like when I [similar experience], it felt [similar emotion]. It’s not easy to find someone who shares that viewpoint.”
Guided Shift: “Speaking of [topic], it got me thinking about how it impacts things like [related but specific interest of yours]. How do you manage that aspect in your [work/life]?”
Information Extraction: As the conversation naturally progresses, you steer towards the information you’re interested in, using the rapport and context you’ve built to make inquiries feel like a natural extension of the conversation.

Keys to Success:

Adaptability: Be ready to pivot or deepen the conversation based on the target’s responses. The better you can echo their context and emotions, the more natural the shift to your objectives will feel.
Authenticity: Maintain a genuine tone throughout. Authenticity builds trust, making your inquiries seem less like probes and more like curiosity or shared concern.
Discretion: Always be subtle in your shifts. The art lies in making these transitions as invisible as possible, embedding your objectives within the flow of a natural, engaging conversation.

Contextual Echo is about creating a resonant dialogue where every turn feels natural and every question seems born out of genuine interest. By employing this technique, you not only safeguard against raising suspicions but also open doors to deeper insights, all while maintaining a seamless, engaging interaction.

More Scenario Examples

Scenario: Confirming Identity

Objective: Confirm Mr. Smith’s ownership of a social media account without direct questioning.
Tactic: Spot a photo on the account of a dog in a unique-looking park. You ask, “Hey, that park in your photo looks amazing. Is it as peaceful as it seems? I’m always on the lookout for quiet spots for reading.”
- Why It’s Better: It’s casual and personal. You’re not directly probing about the account’s ownership but engaging on a shared interest level. The response will naturally involve personal experience if it’s truly Mr. Smith.

Scenario: Probing Security Measures

Objective: Gain insight into a company’s password policies.
Tactic: Mention in passing, “I read an article about how some companies are moving towards biometric authentication because people struggle with password fatigue. It got me thinking about the balance between convenience and security. How does your company tackle this?”
- Why It’s Better: This approach makes the conversation topical and industry-related, rather than personal. It invites an exchange of views on security practices without directly asking about their policies.

Scenario: Extracting Email Address

Objective: Obtain a target’s email address through a fabricated scenario.
Tactic: “I’m helping organize a cybersecurity webinar and we’re gathering insights from various professionals to make it really impactful. We’re discussing the latest in encryption and secure communication strategies. It’d be awesome to get your input, too. Could I email you a short questionnaire? What’s the best email for you?”
- Why It’s Better: It flatters the target by valuing their opinion and masks the true intention under the guise of professional engagement. It’s a scenario where exchanging emails feels natural and justified.

Strategic Deception & Engagement:

Keep your narratives aligned with observable truths or common experiences. Fabricate with a foundation in reality for believability.
Engage with empathy and genuine interest. This not only disarms but also builds a connection, making the exchange feel natural.
Use moments of shock or surprise sparingly. They should feel organic, not contrived, and pivot quickly back to the conversation to avoid suspicion.

Moving Forward - Make Your Own Toolkit

From here on, it’s up to you how you further want to improve on this. There’s a ton of techniques out there, and we’ll keep writing about them.

In the end, you can build up an entire cover story, fake identity, along with websites, a business, etc. - There’s practically no limit, it’s rather a financial one.

Joke of the Day

Patient: “Help me doc, nobody wants to believe me anymore.”
Doctor: “What do you work right now, what’s your job?”
Patient: “Professional liar!”

With all our articles about Psychological Manipulation we aim to help victims of such tactics. These days, Bad Actors use these techniques and tactics, outside of a legal context like Redteaming or Pentesting, for their own purposes. Thereby attackers are often crossing ethical borders, for reasons like Fraud, Blackmailing or just to put people under pressure, leaving their victims without resolution.

We provide detailed analysis of these techniques in hopes to create awareness, to help people understand what maybe has happened to them and to protect them against Social Engineering attacks.