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In March 2024, an external user uploaded documents containing phishing links to Autodesk Drive. Attackers used compromised business email accounts to send contacts links to PDFs that led to fake Microsoft sign-in pages. Autodesk said the files were no longer hosted on Drive and that it had received no customer impact reports as of April 30, 2024. Autodesk described an external user publishing the documents—not a breach of Autodesk’s systems.

How the Autodesk Drive phishing attack worked

Netcraft’s April 24, 2024 account describes a campaign that used a trusted-looking email and a familiar file-sharing service to steer recipients toward credential theft. In the examples Netcraft observed, the sequence was:

  1. A compromised email account contacted someone already in the sender’s address book.
  2. The message retained genuine sender details and signature information and included a shortened link.
  3. The link opened a personalized PDF hosted on Autodesk Drive, with a prominent “VIEW DOCUMENT” prompt.
  4. The prompt led to a Microsoft lookalike sign-in page intended to capture Microsoft credentials.
  5. The page redirected to an unrelated book document, which could make a victim think they had reached the expected file.

Netcraft also described a French-language version and variations in sender details. These are observations from its report, not proof that every message followed precisely the same path. Netcraft’s campaign analysis

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What happened, and what Autodesk disclosed

Date Development
March 2024 Autodesk says it became aware that an external user had published documents to Autodesk Drive containing links to a phishing website.
April 24, 2024 Netcraft published its account of malicious PDFs hosted on Drive and credential phishing.
April 25, 2024 SecurityWeek reported that compromised email accounts sent PDFs to corporate users, with sender and company details used to make the messages appear legitimate.
April 30, 2024 Autodesk said the files were no longer hosted on Drive and that no customers had reported being impacted at the time of publication.

Autodesk’s statement is a status report as of April 30, 2024, not a quantified estimate of how many people saw the messages or a claim that nobody was affected. Autodesk’s April 30 advisory

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Is an Autodesk Drive link safe?

The service name alone cannot establish whether a particular link is safe. In this campaign, legitimate Autodesk Drive hosting was used as a delivery step, but that does not mean every Autodesk Drive share is malicious. Likewise, a familiar sender name, real signature, or company logo is not proof that the account or message is trustworthy: compromised accounts can contact genuine business associates.

Be especially cautious when a document you were not expecting asks you to sign in again or provide credentials. In the reported campaign, the destination imitated Microsoft’s sign-in page. Do not enter a password just because the PDF looks personalized or the sharing page appears familiar.

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What to do if you receive a suspicious shared document

  • Check whether you expected it. Consider whether the person normally shares files this way and whether the file makes sense in the context of your work.
  • Verify through a separate, known channel. Contact the sender using a phone number or address you already trust, rather than replying to the suspicious message or following its links.
  • Do not follow unexpected sign-in prompts. Close the page if a document unexpectedly asks for your Microsoft or other account credentials.
  • Report the link to Autodesk. Autodesk asks users to report suspected malicious links to its Incident Response team, including the full URL and information about how the link was received. Preserve enough context to explain what happened, but do not forward the link to others.

Autodesk also advises users to be wary of urgency, threats, or requests for sensitive information, and to use care with public link sharing. Its guidance is not a guarantee against every phishing attempt. Autodesk’s user recommendations

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How account and organization controls help

Recipient caution, account security, and organization-level settings act at different points in an attack; none is a substitute for the others. Autodesk recommends enabling two-step verification for Autodesk accounts. Its separate account-security bulletin also recommends authenticator applications for two-step verification, strong unique passwords, avoiding password reuse, password managers, and single sign-on for organizations. Those measures can reduce account-risk exposure, but they do not authenticate an unexpected file link.

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Autodesk published that separate bulletin on August 30, 2024, and updated it January 10, 2025. It said unauthorized logins occurred on accounts without two-step verification and that the credentials were believed to have come from public data leaks unrelated to Autodesk; Autodesk said it found no evidence that its systems were compromised. This is a distinct account-security matter, not evidence that the earlier Drive-hosted PDFs resulted from an Autodesk platform breach. Autodesk’s separate account-security advisory

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