Mirai
malware that turns computer systems running Linux into remotely controlled "bots"www.trymirai.com
17
MENTIONS
7
EPISODES
7
PODCASTS
Search complete. 17 mentions across 7 episodes found for "Mirai".
Oct 23, 2026
speaker_1HOST
Going to check your router right about now, are you? Please do, and please do change your password if it is still set to a default value.
speaker_1HOST
To provide an example that brings together both the default password problem and the brute force method, consider the Mirai malware.
speaker_1HOST
Its final goal was to overload targets with huge amounts of network packets being sent from hundreds of thousands of IoT bots spread across the globe.
speaker_1HOST
It had the goal of launching DDoS attacks, primarily.
speaker_1HOST
Meanwhile, the device owners were at home, eating a piece of cake, completely unaware that their fridges were attacking some server on the other side of the globe.
speaker_1HOST
Ah, ignorance is bliss.
speaker_1HOST
The Mirai malware and all of the attacks that happened because of it brought more attention to this using the default password type of problem.
speaker_1HOST
But unfortunately for us, there are several others that we need to consider, especially nowadays where we have people sharing every single detail about their lives on the internet.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Patch now and review operator accounts and audit logs for unexpected superuser activity.
speaker_0NARRATOR
php-2 shell exploitation reaches millions of attempts with attackers dropping mirai mass exploitation of c v e twenty twenty six a hundred nine thousand six hundred eighteen began on october twenty one shortly after the emergency phphp patches Attackers are trying to deploy Mirai malware.
speaker_0NARRATOR
This is the escalation of the PHP RCE flaws we covered yesterday.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Treat any unpatched, internet-facing PHP host as a target, including embedded devices and appliances that bundle PHP host as a target.
Jonathan LuckettHOST
And once they know how it behaves, how do they actually stop the spread? Anthropic mentions a real-world precedent for this kind of defense in the paper, right?
speaker_2HOST
They heavily cite the mitigation of the Mirai botnet as the blueprint for defense.
speaker_2HOST
The Mirai botnet wasn't defeated by individual users realizing their devices were infected and dutifully updating their router firmware.
Jonathan LuckettHOST
That would take forever.
speaker_2HOST
It was stopped at the infrastructure level by the ISPs.
speaker_2HOST
When the ISPs detected the distinct infection signatures of Mirai on their networks, they took aggressive action.
speaker_2HOST
They actively quarantined the infected users.
Jonathan LuckettHOST
Wait, hold on.
Patrick BoyleHOST
I mentioned earlier that taking over these devices was almost embarrassingly simple.
Patrick BoyleHOST
The Mirai botnet spread largely by going through a default list of manufacturer usernames and passwords.
Patrick BoyleHOST
On a lot of consumer hardware, both of those are simply admin.
Patrick BoyleHOST
On October 12th, researchers at Anthropic published a paper testing whether AI models could run on and eventually spread across devices like these.
Patrick BoyleHOST
In a separate test where an AI copied itself across simulated Android devices, the hacking step was trivial.
Patrick BoyleHOST
The devices had no password at all.
Patrick BoyleHOST
But given how Mirai spread, the researchers point out that real-world security might not be dramatically more difficult.
Patrick BoyleHOST
They compare the result to a slime mold, slow but hard to shut down, since there is no centralized point to shut off.
speaker_0HOST
The entry port had no password, and GLM 5.2 itself ran on an outside server because the machines were too small.
speaker_0HOST
But the researchers point out that the Mirai botnet spread simply by trying factory default passwords.
speaker_0HOST
Right now, the models that can do this are too big to run on the devices, and the models that fit on them are not capable enough.
speaker_0HOST
If small open models keep improving at their past rate, they will match GLM 5.2 before this year ends.
James AzarHOST
It's been active since at least twenty seventeen.
James AzarHOST
Integrity Tech also used a Mirai botnet to extend MicroScan's reconnaissance reach, which hits a US power company, NGOs, airports in Japan and Poland, and Taiwanese critical infrastructure and universities.
James AzarHOST
PushUp was the companion exploitation platform enabling remote file access and exfiltration that was used against at least twenty Taiwanese universities.
James AzarHOST
Six domains were seized altogether.
speaker_0HOST
They built a botnet called Raptor Train and the sheer scale of it is just staggering.
speaker_0HOST
By leveraging a highly evolved variant of the Mirai malware, they compromised over 1.2 million small office and home office devices globally.
speaker_1HOST
It's massive.
speaker_0HOST
We're talking about 385,000 unique victim devices right here in the U.S. alone.
speaker_1HOST
The architecture of these small office and home office or SOHO devices makes them the perfect target for a Mirai variant.
speaker_0HOST
Because people just set them up and forget them.
speaker_1HOST
Exactly.
speaker_1HOST
That's a great way to put it.