PSA: Thousands of ASUS wireless routers compromised by botnet

Thousands of ASUS wireless routers have been compromised by a botnet that has also been targeting Cisco, D-Link, and Linksys devices. The way in which routers are infected means that they remain under the control of attackers even if the firmware is updated … ASUS wireless routers compromised Security researchers at Greynoise first detected the exploit back in March, but held off on making it public until the industry had time to coordinate a response. GreyNoise has identified an ongoing exploitation campaign in which attackers have gained unauthorized, persistent access to thousands of ASUS routers exposed to the internet. This appears to be part of a stealth operation to assemble a distributed network of backdoor devices — potentially laying the groundwork for a future botnet […] The attacker’s access survives both reboots and firmware updates, giving them durable control over affected devices. The attacker maintains long-term access without dropping malware or leaving obvious tra ... Read full article.