What is the story behind the Google Docs phishing attack?

In recent days, one of the news stories that attracted significant attention in the world of digital security was the story of a complex Google Docs phishing attack that ensnared many Gmail users, although it was met with a swift response from Google, and the threat of this attack has now been completely eliminated. However, before delving into this attack, which can be considered one of the most complex phishing attacks against internet users, it is worthwhile to briefly familiarize oneself with phishing attacks. What is a phishing attack? A phishing attack is the most popular and at the same time the least expensive method of infiltrating various online accounts and services, where the attacker forges a website, email, etc., to obtain important information for accessing an account, such as a username and password. In recent years, the volume of these attacks has seen significant growth, and among the most famous examples in recent years is the infiltration of the Democratic Party's network in the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Additionally, this hacking method is very popular among Iranian hackers, and in recent years, dozens of journalists and human rights activists have lost access to their various online accounts, such as email, Facebook, and Twitter, through this method. What is the story behind the Google Docs phishing attack? In general, in phishing attacks, the malicious individual creates a fake login page, such as a fake Gmail login page, where the victim submits their username and password to the hacker. However, the key point of the Google Docs phishing attack is that the victim did not need to enter any password; it was sufficient for them to click on a link claiming that a file had been shared with them on Google Drive by one of their friends. When the victim clicked on the link in the email, a page opened requesting the user to grant full access to their Gmail account to an unknown application for file access! This access includes reading, sending, deleting, managing emails, and also the email list of all friends. When the victim confirmed access for this application, the malicious individual could easily access all the content of the victim's email without the victim entering a username or password; and this feature is precisely the key and complex aspect of this phishing attack. The reason for this complexity is that in all phishing attacks prior to this one, the victim always had to enter a username and password in some way so that the hacker could then use them to infiltrate the victim's account, whereas in this phishing attack, such a requirement was not necessary, and the victim granted complete access to the malicious individual or individuals without entering any sensitive information (such as a password). Furthermore, in this attack, the use of two-factor authentication became meaningless because there was no need to log back into the Gmail account. Ultimately, the address that the user sees throughout the attack while granting access to the malicious application is the actual Gmail login address. As a result, considering the three points above, this attack can be regarded as one of the most complex phishing attacks against internet users. To better understand the structure of this phishing attack, you can watch the video file below. What is the way to counter this type of attack? As explained above, this attack has a special complexity that ordinary solutions like being careful with the internet address before entering sensitive information such as passwords are not effective. Therefore, the only solution to counter such attacks is to be careful when installing any application and to observe the permissions that an application requests. Additionally, it is recommended to periodically check the section of applications that have access to your Google account. To access this section, simply use this link. As mentioned at the beginning, this attack has now been stopped by Google, and the possibility of access by the application that took control of Gmail has been eliminated.