Security News > 2022 > April > Hackers Exploiting Spring4Shell Vulnerability to Deploy Mirai Botnet Malware

The recently disclosed critical Spring4Shell vulnerability is being actively exploited by threat actors to execute the Mirai botnet malware, particularly in the Singapore region since the start of April 2022.

The development comes as the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency earlier this week added the Spring4Shell vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog based on "Evidence of active exploitation."

In December 2021, multiple botnets including Mirai and Kinsing were uncovered leveraging the Log4Shell vulnerability to breach susceptible servers on the internet.

Mirai, meaning "Future" in Japanese, is the name given to a Linux malware that has continued to target networked smart home devices such as IP cameras and routers and link them together into a network of infected devices known as a botnet.

Earlier this January, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike noted that malware hitting Linux systems increased by 35% in 2021 compared to 2020, with XOR DDoS, Mirai, and Mozi malware families accounting for more than 22% of Linux-targeted threats observed in the year.

"The primary purpose of these malware families is to compromise vulnerable internet-connected devices, amass them into botnets, and use them to perform distributed denial-of-service attacks," the researchers said.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2022/04/hackers-exploiting-spring4shell.html