Hackers exploit new MikroTik RouterOS flaws to hijack routers
Attackers actively exploit a MikroTik RouterOS SSH authentication bypass and privilege escalation chain, dubbed MikroTrick, to fully hijack internet-exposed routers.
Poland's CERT, with help from GPT-5.5-cyber and GPT-5.6-sol, discovered and confirmed active exploitation of a MikroTik RouterOS chain dubbed MikroTrick: SSH authentication bypass CVE-2026-67276 (incomplete RSA public key validation) chained with privilege escalation CVE-2026-86060 (crafted usernames granting full administrative privileges). A third flaw, CVE-2026-67277, allows unauthenticated kernel memory leaks or router crashes via the bandwidth-test service. Fixes shipped September 3 in RouterOS 7.25beta3, 7.24.2, 7.23.4, and 6.49.21, adding a startup compromise-detection mechanism. Shadowserver data showed 122,500 MikroTik devices with exposed SSH interfaces as of September 5, and the CERT published IoCs including two attacker IP addresses.