Dark_nexus botnet outstrips other malware with new, potent features

guest · Apr 8, 2020

Dark_nexus botnet outstrips other malware with new, potent features
Researchers have found a botnet that borrows from Qbot and Mirai but goes much further in terms of power
April 8, 2020
https://www.zdnet.com/article/new-d...s-others-with-original-advanced-capabilities/

A new botnet has entered the threat landscape that researchers say "puts to shame" others on the scene, such as Mirai and Qbot.

Dark_nexus, named so due to strings printed on its banner, has code links to both Mirai and Qbot, but the team says the majority of the botnet's functions are original.

"While it might share some features with previously known IoT botnets, the way some of its modules have been developed makes it significantly more potent and robust," Bitdefender says.
Dark_nexus has existed for three months and during this time, three different versions have been released.

The botnet has a payload customized for a total of 12 different CPU architectures and is delivered depending on a victim's configuration and setup.
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Dark_nexus uses a rather unique approach to maintain a foothold on a machine -- a form of 'risk assessment' conducted on existing processes.
A list of whitelisted processes is included in the malware's code, together with their process identifiers, which dictates the processes that are considered okay. Everything that crosses a "threshold of suspicion" is killed.

Another feature of interest is an attempt to prevent a device from rebooting.
The developer of the botnet is believed to be greek.Helios, a known botnet author that has been flogging DDoS services in underground forums for a number of years.
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Bitdefender: New dark_nexus IoT Botnet Puts Others to Shame
Whitepaper (PDF): https://www.bitdefender.com/files/News/CaseStudies/study/319/Bitdefender-PR-Whitepaper-DarkNexus-creat4349-en-EN-interactive.pdf

Bitdefender researchers have recently found a new IoT botnet packing new features and capabilities that put to shame most IoT botnets and malware that we’ve seen.
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Dark_nexus botnet outstrips other malware with new, potent features

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