Security News > 2022 > March > Attackers using default credentials to target businesses, Raspberry Pi and Linux top targets

With attackers increasingly deploying automated attack methods, default credentials are the most common passwords used by these bad actors, acting in effect as a 'skeleton key' for criminal access.

Default credentials providing an entry point for attackers.

The research revealed that attackers are consistently using, and gaining access to servers, with the same regular passwords.

"On the list are the default Raspberry Pi credentials. There are more than 200,000 machines on the internet running the standard Raspberry Pi OS, making it a reasonable target for bad actors. We also can see what looks like credentials used on Linux machines. This highlights a key issue - default credentials are still not being changed," said Brian Wagner, CTO at Bulletproof.

"Using default credentials provides one of the easiest entry points for attackers, acting as a 'skeleton key' for multiple hacks. Using legitimate credentials can allow attackers to avoid detection and makes investigating and monitoring attacks much harder."

A quarter of the passwords used by attackers today originate from the RockYou database leak from December 2009.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/03/16/attackers-using-default-credentials/