5,00,000 IoT Devices are Infected with Mirai IoT Malware

With the release of the Mirai source code on the Internet, there are increased risks of more botnets being generated. Both Mirai and Bashlite can exploit the numerous IoT devices that still use default passwords and are easily compromised. Such botnet attacks could severely disrupt an organization’s communications or cause significant financial harm.

Reports are claiming that the Mirai IoT malware has now infected almost half a million IoT devices, more than doubling the size of the original Mirai botnet. Since the source code was released in late 2016, the source code has been used by criminals to create their own versions of the malware and are infecting new devices. This new Mirai-derived malware attack actively scanned TCP port 7547 on broadband routers susceptible to a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) vulnerability. These devices can then be remotely used in DDoS attacks. This points us towards hardening the networks against the possibility of a DDoS attack.