What is impersonation?
Impersonation attack is a type of security threat where an attacker pretends to be another person or organization to gain the victim's trust.
Azərbaycanca: İmpersonasiya (kimliyini gizlədərək başqasının adından fəaliyyət göstərmə) hücumu - təhlükəsizlik təhdidlərindən biridir ki, burada hücumçu özünü başqa şəxs və ya təşkilat kimi göstərərək, qurbanın etimadını qazanmağa çalışır.
How it works
Impersonation attacks are typically carried out through phishing, click hijacking, and other social engineering tactics. Attackers create seemingly legitimate ads, emails, or web pages that trick victims into divulging sensitive information or installing malware.
Defense checklist5
- 01
Avoid clicking on suspicious emails or links
- 02
Verify official websites and sources
- 03
Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
- 04
Use security software and EDR solutions
- 05
Provide security awareness training to users
Real-world evidence
Based on the provided incidents, impersonation attacks have been observed in various forms: from fake Google ads leading to malware installation, impersonating Apple support services, to fake impersonations on TikTok shops. Additionally, vulnerabilities related to user impersonation in WSO2 Identity Server (CVE-2025-12627) and certificate validation issues in SAP Approuter (CVE-2026-66760) have been identified.
Sources
- Impersonation, Click Hijacking, and TDS: Inside a Malware Distribution Ecosystemcheckpoint
- From Google Ads to Terminal: Dissecting an Apple Support Impersonation Campaign Abusing Claude Share.reddit_netsec
- Impersonation protection: How to protect your executives when the truth isn’t clearhelpnetsecurity
- CVE-2026-4648: Use of an insecure cryptographic algorithm in the cashless payment system using NFC wristbnvd
- CVE-2025-12627: The user impersonation flow in WSO2 Identity Server fails to properly manage refresh tokennvd
- Watch out for fake TikTok Shops trying to steal your moneymalwarebytes
- CVE-2026-66760: SAP Approuter does not correctly validate client certificates in certain callback flows. Anvd
Other attack types
See also6
This guide is AI-written from the real incident sources skopnix collected — the examples above are drawn from those cited items, nothing is invented.