RTF-Based Phishing Attacks Explode as Malicious Emails and Attachments Look More Trustworthy Than Ever

Hackers have found a clever new way to abuse Rich Text Format (.RTF) files in phishing attacks, experts have warned.

Cybersecurity researchers Ironscales claim to have observed a “major spike” in these campaigns during 2024, and in the space of just one month (March 2024), the experts say they spotted, and stopped, 6,755 such attacks.

So what makes this attack so unique, and ultimately - successful? Three things, Ironscales says: the use of an outdated file format, attachment personalization, and URL obfuscation.