Muhstik Botnet Attacks Tomato Routers to Harvest New IoT Devices
Unit 42 found a Muhstik botnet variant brute-forcing Tomato router web authentication to harvest IoT devices for crypto mining and DDoS attacks.
Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers in December 2019 identified a new Muhstik botnet variant scanning Tomato routers on TCP 8080 and brute-forcing default admin credentials, targeting roughly 4,600 exposed devices found via Shodan. The variant also scans WordPress and Webuzo installations and exploits the Oracle WebLogic deserialization flaw CVE-2019-2725 for unauthenticated remote code execution. Muhstik, active since March 2018, self-propagates like a worm and typically monetizes infections through cryptocurrency mining and DDoS attacks controlled via an IRC C2 channel.
Home & Small Office Wireless Routers Exploited to Attack Gaming Servers
Unit 42 details an updated Gafgyt botnet variant exploiting Zyxel, Huawei, and Realtek router vulnerabilities to recruit devices for DoS attacks on gaming servers.
Unit 42 researchers identified an updated Gafgyt variant derived from the JenX botnet that combines three remote code execution exploits: CVE-2017-18368 (Zyxel P660HN-T1A), CVE-2017-17215 (Huawei HG532), and CVE-2014-8361 (Realtek RTL81XX chipset). Shodan scans show more than 32,000 wireless routers worldwide potentially vulnerable to these exploits. The exploits act as droppers, pulling architecture-specific binaries from a malicious server (185.172.110.224), and the botnet performs denial-of-service attacks against gaming servers, most notably Valve Source engine servers.
Perle Systems IRG7440 5G Router & Gateway enables secure communications to multiple back-end systems
IoT Under Siege: The Anatomy of the Latest Mirai Campaign Leveraging Multiple IoT Exploits
Unit 42 tracks a Mirai botnet campaign exploiting over 20 IoT vulnerabilities in routers, cameras and DVRs to build DDoS botnets since March 2023.
Since March 2023, Unit 42 has tracked threat actors exploiting more than 20 IoT vulnerabilities to spread a Mirai botnet variant, first seen downloading payloads from zvub.us on March 14, 2023. Exploited flaws span CVE-2023-1389 (TP-Link Archer), CVE-2022-30525 (Zyxel), CVE-2022-31499 (Nortek) and many router, camera and DVR bugs. The variant decrypts configuration strings with an XOR key derived from 0xDEADBEEF and lacks built-in credential brute forcing, so spreading relies on manual operator exploitation. Two campaigns observed since October 2022 share infrastructure and near-identical samples.