Phishing Email Analysis Tools – Your Go-To Toolkit 🚨

Phishing is one of the oldest tricks in the hacker’s playbook — but it’s also one of the most effective. Even in 2025, phishing emails remain one of the top causes of data breaches worldwide. Why? Because attackers know the easiest way to break into an organization isn’t always through exploiting a zero-day vulnerability — it’s by tricking a human.

Whether it’s credential theft, malware delivery, business email compromise (BEC), or launching broader campaigns, phishing remains the go-to weapon for cybercriminals. That means security teams, SOC analysts, and even everyday users must be equipped with the right tools to analyze suspicious emails before they wreak havoc.

Why Email Analysis Matters

Before diving into tools, let’s pause for a second and understand why analyzing a phishing email is so critical.

Attackers don’t just send one-off phishing attempts anymore. Instead, modern phishing campaigns are highly targeted, automated, and data-driven. An attacker may spoof a trusted brand, hijack legitimate infrastructure, or even register domains that look almost identical to the real thing (using homograph attacks).

The consequences can be devastating:

• Compromised credentials → Unauthorized access to company accounts
• Ransomware infections → Delivered via malicious attachments
• Financial fraud → Business Email Compromise scams draining millions
• Reputation damage → Customers losing trust after a phishing incident

That’s why having the right analysis workflow matters. You can’t just look at a suspicious email and “guess.” You need structured methods and tools.

So, let’s get into the 7 categories of tools every security analyst should know.

1️⃣ Email Header Analysis

Phishing emails often hide in plain sight. The body of the email might look legitimate — using brand logos, professional signatures, and even proper grammar. But the email header never lies.

Email headers contain valuable metadata: where the message came from, the servers it passed through, the sender’s IP address, and authentication results (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). Attackers may try to spoof the “From” field, but the underlying header reveals the truth.

Here are the best tools to dissect email headers:

• MailHeader A simple but effective tool. Paste your email header, and it will parse it into human-readable form. Helps identify forged fields and mismatched sender information.
• MXToolbox Header Analyzer MXToolbox is a well-known name in email security. Their header analyzer doesn’t just format the data — it highlights potential issues, checks IP addresses, and provides insights into the route an email took.
• Google MessageHeader Google’s official tool is handy when analyzing suspicious emails inside Gmail. It calculates the delay between hops, helping detect unusual routes often seen in phishing campaigns.
• Azure Message Header Analyzer Microsoft’s take on header parsing. Perfect for organizations using Office 365. It gives detailed insights into email routing and authentication checks.

📌 Pro Tip: Always cross-reference the Return-Path, Received-SPF, and DKIM results with the visible “From” address. If they don’t match, it’s a huge red flag.

2️⃣ URL & IP Reputation Checks

Phishing emails almost always contain malicious links — either to steal credentials or to deliver malware. Before clicking anything, security analysts must check the reputation of these URLs and IP addresses.

Here’s your toolkit:

• VirusTotal A staple in the security community. Paste a URL, file, or domain, and VirusTotal will check it against dozens of antivirus engines and reputation databases.
• URLScan.io One of the most powerful URL analysis tools. It provides a screenshot of the website, the DOM structure, linked resources, and any malicious patterns. Great for catching phishing landing pages.
• AbuseIPDB Ideal for IP lookups. You can see if the sending server is associated with spam, malware, or botnet activity.
• Cisco Talos Intelligence Cisco’s reputation database. Great for analyzing domains and IPs, and provides context on how widely they’re associated with malicious activity.
• BrightCloud Threat Intelligence Useful for categorizing domains (e.g., phishing, malware, spam). Helps identify newly registered suspicious sites.
• CheckPhish An AI-powered tool that specializes in detecting phishing pages. Particularly strong against brand impersonation attempts.

📌 Pro Tip: Always perform a reputation check in a sandboxed environment (never open links directly). Attackers often use geofencing — meaning the page may look “safe” for one region but load malware in another.

3️⃣ File & Malware Analysis

Phishing emails often come with attachments — Word documents, PDFs, Excel sheets, or ZIP files. These may contain macros, scripts, or malware payloads.

Instead of opening these files on your system (a terrible idea), you should upload them to safe analysis platforms.

Best tools for the job:

• AnyRun An interactive malware sandbox where you can watch the file execution in real time. Fantastic for seeing what an attachment tries to do (like reaching out to a command-and-control server).
• Cuckoo Sandbox Open-source malware analysis framework. You can deploy it in your lab and safely execute suspicious files to generate detailed reports.
• Hybrid Analysis CrowdStrike’s free analysis platform. Provides detailed behavioral reports, including network traffic, API calls, and persistence mechanisms.
• JoeSandbox A more advanced commercial solution used by enterprises. Supports a wide variety of file types and provides deep insights into malware behavior.
• VMRay Enterprise-grade analysis platform with automated reporting. Great for SOC teams handling multiple incidents daily.

📌 Pro Tip: If you’re analyzing Microsoft Office attachments, always check for macro-enabled files (.docm, .xlsm). These are the most common carriers for phishing-delivered malware.

4️⃣ Domain & WHOIS Lookups

Phishing campaigns often use freshly registered domains that look like legitimate ones. For example, instead of paypal.com, attackers may register paypa1.com or paypal-security-login.com.

Domain and WHOIS lookup tools help you investigate:

• When was the domain registered?
• Who owns it?
• What hosting provider is being used?

Best tools:

• DomainTools Provides WHOIS records, historical data, and DNS information. Excellent for tracking phishing infrastructure.
• SecurityTrails Offers insights into domains, subdomains, and historical DNS records. Useful for mapping attacker infrastructure.
• DNSlytics Helps identify related domains, IP addresses, and mail servers. Great for spotting phishing campaigns hosted on the same infrastructure.
• WHOIS Lookup (Generic) Various WHOIS lookup services provide registration details. If the domain was registered very recently, it’s often a phishing indicator.

📌 Pro Tip: Many phishing domains hide behind privacy protection services. If you see a brand-new domain with masked WHOIS data, treat it as highly suspicious.

5️⃣ Automated Phishing Analysis

Sometimes, analysts need to speed up investigations. Manually checking headers, domains, and files takes time. Automated analysis tools streamline this process.

Here are the best:

• CyberChef Known as the “Swiss Army Knife” for data analysis. You can decode Base64 payloads, extract obfuscated URLs, analyze scripts, and much more.
• PhishTool A dedicated phishing investigation platform. It pulls in data from headers, URLs, and attachments, and generates easy-to-read reports.

📌 Pro Tip: Automation should assist — not replace — human analysis. Use these tools to save time but always apply critical thinking.

6️⃣ Phishing Intelligence & Blocklists

Once a phishing email is confirmed, analysts should report it to threat intelligence platforms and blocklists. This helps protect others while improving defenses.

Top platforms:

• OpenPhish A real-time phishing feed. Helps detect ongoing campaigns.
• PhishTank Community-driven phishing database. You can submit suspicious URLs and check if they’re already flagged.
• PhishingArmy A maintained list of phishing domains updated frequently. Often integrated into security tools.
• HaveIBeenPwned While not a phishing database per se, it helps check if email accounts targeted by phishing have been compromised in breaches.

📌 Pro Tip: Sharing intelligence strengthens the community. Always report new phishing attempts to blocklists — it helps others avoid falling victim.

7️⃣ Learning Resources

Staying updated is key. Attackers are constantly evolving techniques, so security professionals need continuous learning.

Recommended resources:

• SANS Phishing Resources — Training materials and case studies
• PhishLabs Blog — Regular updates on phishing trends
• Reddit r/netsec & r/phishing — Community discussions
• Twitter/X Security Researchers — Follow hashtags like #phishing and #infosec
• MITRE ATT&CK Framework — Great for mapping phishing to adversary techniques

📌 Pro Tip: Try setting up a personal phishing lab using open-source tools (like Cuckoo Sandbox + CyberChef). Practicing real-world analysis will sharpen your skills.

Building Your Phishing Analysis Workflow

Now that you have the tools, let’s put them together into a practical workflow:

1. Collect Evidence → Save email headers, body, attachments, and URLs.
2. Header Analysis → Use MXToolbox / MailHeader.
3. URL & IP Reputation → Check with VirusTotal, URLScan, AbuseIPDB.
4. File Analysis → Upload suspicious attachments to AnyRun / Hybrid Analysis.
5. Domain Investigation → Use WHOIS, DomainTools, SecurityTrails.
6. Automated Checks → Run CyberChef / PhishTool for deeper insights.
7. Report & Share → Submit to OpenPhish, PhishTank, PhishingArmy.

Final Thoughts

Phishing isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, as technology evolves, so do phishing campaigns. Attackers are now using AI-generated emails, deepfake voice calls, and SMS phishing (smishing) to bypass defenses.

But here’s the good news: with the right toolkit and workflow, security analysts can detect, analyze, and stop phishing attacks before they succeed.

Remember: Every phishing email is a learning opportunity. The more you analyze, the sharper your instincts will become.

🚨 Stay safe. Stay curious. And always verify before you trust.