Phishing Evades Traditional Defenses – Interactive Sandboxes Close the Gap

Modern phishing campaigns increasingly bypass traditional email filters and URL reputation engines by delaying malicious behavior until after user interaction, using techniques such as multi-step redirects, human-only actions and QR-code-based links. Attackers host initial pages that appear benign, then trigger credential harvesting or malware delivery only after clicks, form fills or mouse movement, aligning with MITRE ATT&CK T1566 (Phishing), T1204 (User Execution) and T1027 (Obfuscated Files or Information). QR-based phishing, rotating domains and multi-hop redirection chains further reduce the effectiveness of static analysis and blocklists. The article highlights how many SOCs no longer fully trust tools that label links as 'clean' at first glance. Phishing kits often rely on behaviors that automated crawlers cannot replicate, such as solving CAPTCHAs, navigating multi-page flows, or scanning QR codes with a mobile device. As a result, payloads only appear several steps into the journey, long after most email gateways and proxies stop inspecting content. Attackers also abuse legitimate platforms—such as project management and cloud services—to host initial lures and redirect victims to rogue Azure or microdomain landing pages that closely mimic Microsoft login experiences. To address these challenges, security teams are increasingly adopting interactive sandboxes like ANY.RUN that combine automation with human-guided input. Automation handles repetitive tasks such as following redirects, extracting and opening QR-linked URLs and solving simple gates, while analysts can step in to click, type and explore suspicious paths as a user would. This approach exposes full phishing chains, including credential harvesting actions and JS-based evasion, within minutes, enabling faster triage and more accurate IOC extraction. Reported benefits include up to 58% more threats identified, 94% of users experiencing faster triage and significantly reduced Tier 2 escalations. Organizations should treat interactive, behavior-focused analysis as a core component of phishing defense rather than a niche capability. Recommended steps include integrating sandbox detonations into email workflows for high-risk messages, training Tier 1 analysts to interpret behavioral reports, and feeding newly discovered indicators back into email filters, proxies and endpoint tools. Executive support for tools and processes that emphasize real user-like interaction is crucial to narrowing the visibility gap between what attackers design for and what traditional scanners can see.