Quishing Explained: How Cybercriminals Exploit QR Codes and Human Behavior

Cybercriminals today think outside the inbox, exploiting a new point of vulnerability in an age of hybrid work and mobile-first behavior: QR codes. This tactic, known as quishing, is an old-school scam in a modern format, leveraging a trusted physical medium to bypass digital safeguards.

The explosion of AI-generated phishing content creates quishing kits that are incredibly convincing and scalable. QR codes are everywhere, from office doors to restaurant menus, making it easier for scammers to embed malicious links in seemingly benign environments.

These attacks are especially effective since 73% of Americans scan QR codes without verification. The result is persistent cybersecurity blind spots in physical and digital workflows.

Adaptive Security recognizes that awareness alone isn't enough. The platform simulates real-world attack vectors like quishing to close behavior-based risk gaps before they lead to disruptive breaches.

What is quishing?

Quishing is a type of phishing that uses malicious QR codes to trick users into visiting fraudulent websites, downloading malware, or entering sensitive information. Instead of relying on phishing emails or SMS, attackers place these codes in physical or digital contexts that feel trustworthy: think posters in office lobbies or on fake parking tickets.

The power of QR code phishing lies in its subtlety. Scanning a QR code is easy, convenient, and legitimate QR codes are everywhere. Yet that tap can trigger a chain of compromise, especially since the scan often happens on personal phones, outside corporate email filters and endpoint protections.

Unlike email-based phishing, where URLs and metadata can be analyzed, quishing cloaks its intent behind the camera app and a split-second decision. Compared to traditional phishing, quishing is harder to detect and easier to deploy in public settings.

Common cyberattack channels include:

• Flyers on campus bulletin boards promising gift cards or discounts
• Fake parking violation tickets placed on windshields
• Spoofed corporate signage in office buildings or coworking spaces
• QR codes shown during meetings or presentations, impersonating IT helpdesk links

These attacks exploit a false sense of security: "if it's printed, it must be legitimate." Adaptive Security trains users to recognize real-world manipulations, pairing behavioral cues with simulated threats that mirror how modern quishing works in practice.

Anatomy of a modern quishing attack

Quishing isn't just about slapping a QR code on a flyer. It's a multi-stage attack that leverages psychology, design, and mobile habits to evade detection. Here's how a typical campaign unfolds.

1. Create a realistic QR code lure

An attacker's first step is to generate a malicious QR code that redirects to a fake login page or malware-hosting domain. But the QR itself is only half the trick. The real effectiveness lies in the contextual wrapper. Attackers design believable visuals around the code, often mimicking:

• IT helpdesk notices
• HR policy updates
• Parking citations
• Event check-in signage

These lures are engineered to spark urgency or curiosity—two of the most common emotional triggers exploited in social engineering.

2. Distribute the QR Code via Physical or Digital Channels

Next, the attacker plants the code in places where trust is high and scrutiny is low. This could include:

• Printed flyers posted in office buildings or university campuses
• Parking violation slips placed on car windshields or stickers on parking meters
• Posters in coworking spaces or lobbies, spoofing internal IT or HR messaging
• Screens or slides during remote meetings, prompting users to "verify access" or "update credentials"

Attackers may also embed QR codes in PDFs, phishing emails, or compromised Slack and Teams channels.

3. Exploit mobile behavior

This is where the attack gains momentum. Most QR scans happen on personal phones, outside the protective bubble of corporate endpoint detection. Users rarely verify the destination URL, and mobile browsers often obscure full links, making it easier for spoofed domains to appear legitimate.

Additionally, people are conditioned to trust QR codes in all settings, lowering their guard. This behavioral blind spot is exactly what quishing targets.

4. Redirect to a spoofed site

Once scanned, the fake QR code directs the user to a fake login page. In a business quishing attack, this is typically styled to resemble Microsoft 365, Okta, Google Workspace, or internal company portals.

These malicious websites may include realistic branding, UI elements, and CAPTCHA prompts to make them appear legitimate. Advanced attackers even use geolocation and device-type detection to personalize the spoofed page, further increasing the odds of success.

5. Harvest credentials or trigger malware

Finally, the attacker completes the kill chain by either:

• Capturing login credentials entered by the user
• Triggering a silent malware download, such as a mobile remote access trojan (RAT) or credential stealer
• Redirecting to additional phishing sites for layered exploitation

If multi-factor authentication (MFA) is in place, attackers may use real-time phishing kits to proxy credentials and steal session tokens, bypassing even well-defended environments.

Why traditional security awareness misses quishing

Despite the rise of QR-based threats, most security awareness programs still operate in an email-centric world. They're built for inbox safety, not real-world scenarios where visual deception meets mobile behavior.

Most legacy training tools also focus on digital channels, especially email. But quishing lives in the physical and hybrid spaces. These vectors aren't just untrained; they're completely ignored in most traditional security awareness programs.

Conventional phishing simulations tend to revolve around fake emails and URL links. Quishing, however, merges visual cues and mobile behavior, an entirely different cognitive pathway. Users aren't clicking, they're scanning, and they're doing it on devices with different UX patterns, protections, and blind spots.

This mismatch means even security-savvy users can be caught off guard, simply because their training didn't account for the QR factor. If your security training doesn't mirror how threats actually appear in employees' daily environments, it's not preparing them for what matters.  

Legacy learning management systems (LMS) deliver security training in static modules: one-size-fits-all videos, outdated quizzes, or annual certifications. These may tick a compliance box, but they fail to adapt to emerging threats.

Adaptive Security's behavior-first approach

Adaptive Security takes a different stance. Rather than relying solely on knowledge retention, the platform monitors real user actions in real-world simulations, including QR code scans, mobile interactions, and post-scan behaviors. You'll see not just who knows the right answer, but who would act on the wrong one.

With Adaptive, quishing isn't a theoretical lesson; it's a live, testable scenario that helps security teams uncover hidden behavioral risks before attackers do.

How to integrate quishing into your security awareness training program

Training employees to spot and resist quishing attacks requires more than a slide deck or once-a-year quiz. An effective program simulates real-world threats, reinforcing learning in the moment, and tracking behaviors.

Here's how to make quishing part of a resilient security awareness strategy.

1. Design realistic quishing simulations

To build real-world resistance, your simulations need to look and feel authentic. Use visual lures like posters, fake IT memos, and meeting slide QR codes, exactly how attackers would operate.

It's also useful to deploy across multiple channels: simulate flyer drops in office printers, insert QR codes into internal newsletters or Slack/Teams messages, and even plant signage near restrooms or elevators. Start simple with obvious decoys (e.g., "Win a free iPad") and gradually increase realism, mimicking actual company branding or executive communications.

Adaptive Security's simulation engine allows you to tailor these by department, role, or even past behavior. You can deliver contextual training at scale.

2. Train employees on QR phishing red flags

Once employees encounter a simulation, they need immediate context to understand what went wrong and why.

• Educate on classic red flags: be wary of urgency language ("verify now"), suspicious domains, or poorly formatted URLs.
• Promote safe scanning habits: preview destination links, avoid codes from unknown sources, and verify before scanning any physical QR in the workplace.
• Provide just-in-time microtraining after each simulated failure delivered directly via email, mobile, or LMS.

Adaptive triggers these micro-lessons automatically based on behavior, and retraining paths are adjusted in real time using employee-specific feedback loops.

3. Measure behavioral signals, not just clicks

Knowledge tests don't stop breaches. Behavioral insights do. You need to track more than just who clicked, scan-to-click ratios, login attempts on spoofed portals, and whether two-factor challenges were bypassed or entered.

You need to segment performance by team, department, and location to detect patterns and pockets of risk. Then use these insights to adjust training frequency and flag high-risk users for coaching. This allows your broader risk mitigation program to evolve.

Adaptive's analytics dashboard surfaces behavioral indicators, not just activity logs, so you can move from awareness to actionable risk scoring.

4. Embed quishing into a multi-vector simulation strategy

Quishing isn't an isolated threat. It's part of a growing family of social engineering tactics. The most effective programs treat it as one layer in a multi-channel defense strategy.

• Rotate between quishing, smishing (SMS phishing), vishing (voice phishing), credential phishing, and deepfake-powered AI phishing to avoid fatigue and ensure coverage.
• Score users consistently across vectors to track true resilience over time.
• Plan quarterly "multi-threat drills" to simulate coordinated attacks across formats and measure cross-scenario decision-making.

With Adaptive Security, you can manage all these simulations from a single platform, streamlining threat modeling, behavioral scoring, and compliance tracking—all in one place.

Simulate the unexpected with Adaptive Security

Quishing is effective because it exploits what traditional defenses overlook: physical-world behaviors and mobile-first habits that occur outside the reach of email filters and endpoint protections. It's not just a new threat vector; it's a wake-up call for how modern organizations train their people.

To defend against it, you need more than theory. You need realistic, behavior-driven simulations that expose blind spots and continue to evolve with the threat landscape.

Adaptive Security empowers your team to train for tomorrow's threats today, across quishing, smishing, AI-generated phishing, and more. The platform makes it easy to simulate, measure, and respond to human risk in real-time.

Ready to simulate a quishing attack in your organization? Book a free Adaptive demo now.

FAQs about quishing

How can you prevent quishing?

Preventing quishing and phishing attacks starts with employee education and simulation.

Teach users to verify QR sources, preview destination URLs, and avoid scanning unknown or public codes. Use behavior-triggered simulations, like those from Adaptive Security, to expose and reduce real-world risk. Finally, implement mobile endpoint protections and restrict auto-login or credential reuse on devices used for scanning.

How do attackers use QR codes for phishing?

Attackers embed malicious URLs in QR codes and distribute them via physical items (flyers, parking tickets) or digital platforms (emails, PDFs). When scanned, the code redirects users to spoofed login pages or initiates malware downloads, bypassing email security filters and exploiting mobile security gaps.

Is quishing a threat in enterprise environments?

Yes. Enterprises are uniquely vulnerable due to widespread QR use in internal signage, event check-ins, and hybrid collaboration. Hackers exploit employee trust in branded materials and scan-on-the-go behavior.

Without simulation-based training, most organizations fail to detect or prevent these subtle but effective phishing tactics. They risk sharing sensitive financial information with malicious sites.

How can employees stay safe from QR-based attacks?

Employees should preview QR destinations before tapping, avoid scanning codes from unknown or unverified sources, and be cautious of urgent prompts.

They should also report suspicious signage or unsolicited QR-related prompts to IT. Continuous training with real-world simulations builds long-term scanning hygiene and helps employees avoid QR code scams.