A New IoT Botnet Storm Is Coming
New cyber-storm clouds are gathering. CheckPoint Researchers have discovered of a brand new Botnet evolving and recruiting IoT devices at a far greater pace and with more potential damage than the Mirai botnet of 2016.
IoT Botnets are Internet connected smart devices which have been infected by the same malware and are controlled by a threat actor from a remote location. They have been behind some of the most damaging cyberattacks against organisations worldwide, including hospitals, national transport links, communication companies and political movements.
While some technical aspects lead us to suspect a possible connection to Mirai, this is an entirely new and far more sophisticated campaign that is rapidly spreading worldwide. It is too early to guess the intentions of the threat actors behind it, but with previous Botnet DDoS attacks essentially taking down the Internet, it is vital that organizations make proper preparations and defense mechanisms are put in place before an attack strikes.
Ominous signs were first picked up via CheckPoint’s Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) in the last few days of September. An increasing number of attempts were being made by hackers to exploit a combination of vulnerabilities found in various IoT devices.
With each passing day the malware was evolving to exploit an increasing number of vulnerabilities in Wireless IP Camera devices such as GoAhead, D-Link, TP-Link, AVTECH, NETGEAR, MikroTik, Linksys, Synology and others. It soon became apparent that the attempted attacks were coming from many different sources and a variety of IoT devices, meaning the attack was being spread by the IoT devices themselves.
Over a million organisations have already been affected worldwide, including the US, Australia and everywhere in between, and the number is only increasing.
Research suggests we are now experiencing the calm before an even more powerful storm. The next cyber hurricane is about to come.
Research Background
Creating networks of infected devices is not a quick task for an attacker. In order to establish an effective Botnet, the attacker needs to be able to control a vast number of devices. As sending the malicious code to each device individually would be a large and time consuming task, it is much easier to have each infected device spreading the malicious code to other similar devices themselves. This method of attack is considered a propagation attack, and is essential in quickly creating a large network of controlled devices.
Research began at the end of September ‘17 after noticing an increase in attempts to penetrate IoT IPS protections.
Upon further research, it was found that numerous devices were both being targeted and later sending out the infection. These attacks were coming from many different types of devices and many different countries, totaling approximately 60% of the corporate networks which are part of the ThreatCloud global network.
To conclude, in the last few days around the 18th October a new botnet has been evolving. While some technical aspects lead us to suspect a possible connection to the Mirai botnet, this is an entirely new campaign rapidly spreading throughout the globe. It is too early to assess the intentions of the threat actors behind it, but it is vital to have the proper preparations and defense mechanisms in place before an attack strikes.
IPS Coverage
While this may be an emerging threat of millions of attacks being conducted, the methods of infection are already being prevented by Check Point IPS. The vulnerability listed has been covered, and devices are currently being monitored for new variants.
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