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back to article Another IoT botnet has been found feasting on vulnerable IP cameras

Researchers have discovered yet another IoT botnet. Persirai targets more than a thousand different internet protocol camera models. Researchers at Trend Micro warn that 120,000 web-connected cameras are vulnerable to the malware. Consumers would, in most cases, be unaware that their devices are even exposed to the internet …

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  1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    "more than a thousand different internet protocol camera models."

    Or more likely 5 models with 200 odd resellers badges on them.

    UPnP. The protocol that just keeps giving (control of your hardware to someone else).

    I know it's infantilely stupid but shouldn't everyone start with the question "What ports are open on my machine?" If it's open do you know what it normally does? Are you happy to have it doing that?

    If a port scanner scanned the addresses of your ISP what would they find?

    11 0 Reply
    1. vir
      Reply Icon

      Re: "more than a thousand different internet protocol camera models."

      Further to this, and I suspect an exacerbating factor: hard-coded or default credentials. I think this is a perfect issue to start rallying around to get the ball rolling on IoT security. It's a gaping hole that has been provably exploited already, is easy to explain to anyone, and is easy to fix.

      6 0 Reply
    2. fidodogbreath
      Reply Icon

      Re: "more than a thousand different internet protocol camera models."

      I know it's infantilely stupid but shouldn't everyone start with the question "What ports are open on my machine?"

      The electronics industry has created a flawed expectation that consumer IT products are just like hooking a Blu-ray player to a TV: plug it in, press Power, enjoy.

      What fraction of average home users even know that UPnP exists, much less what it does and why it's dangerous? And without UPnP, how many would have the skills to enable secure remote access to a camera system or other IoThingie?

      The root problem is these are IT products, made by companies that don't provide support, sold to and installed by people with no IT skills. So we have crap like UPnP, otherwise the new shinies get returned to the store because consumers can't make them work.

      7 0 Reply
      1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Reply Icon
        Unhappy

        "sold to and installed by people with no IT skills. "

        Which if I would were callus about it would not bother me.

        The problem is that s**t then starts attacking everyone else's stuff.

        So instead of being a problem for the ignorati only it now becomes a problem for everyone.

        3 0 Reply
    3. Trigonoceps occipitalis
      Reply Icon

      Re: "more than a thousand different internet protocol camera models."

      "What ports are open on my machine?"

      I'm sorry, can you say that in English?

      Expected answer from >99% of a random sample in the UK.

      1 0 Reply
      1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Reply Icon
        Happy

        "What ports are open on my machine?" "I'm sorry, can you say that in English?"

        Actually I can.

        https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

        Follow the instructions and watch the pretty pattern form. If it's all Green it's a start. If it's partly Red go find someone who does know about these things and ask them for help.

        1 0 Reply
  2. vir

    The Perfect Parasite

    Using its host to reproduce while not damaging it enough to prevent it from multiplying and producing new hosts to infect. As long as the camera is still doing camera things, the user won't care or even notice. Elegant and effective. Can we get David Attenborough to narrate?

    14 0 Reply
  3. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Yet still the unwise go and buy this crap!

    I wonder how many PRON sites are getting dodgy images from this stuff?

    What is it going to take to get these things banned? Photos of Kim K without makeup?

    4 0 Reply
    1. Eric 23
      Reply Icon

      Re: Yet still the unwise go and buy this crap!

      any photo of Kim K makes me gag & get queezy.

      8 1 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Yet still the unwise go and buy this crap!

      None, one hopes. The quality of video, and not having a camera operator, will make for some very shoddy pr0ns. At the very least, a second camera for the editor to do cuts between to keep the action going, if you're going to shoot using stationary cameras. So they say, so they say. I'm not familiar with shooting pr0n videos, just viewing them.

      That's how Kim got her start in "show business:" pr0n. She's fabulously wealthy and all that money cannot buy you attention, so out come the tits, and put a camera in every room, car, and house so the money keeps flowing in, even when they are trying their hardest to piss it all away. Robert K is spinning in his grave from the fact than none of those little dufus' went to school to take up the family business, you know, where the money originally came from, in the law profession. Not one. And they can't start now, they're too old and stupid. I'm just waiting for the money to run out, THEN the show will get mighty interesting. Rich stupid people will eventually run out of money, but they'll be wealthy in stupidity forever. :P

      2 0 Reply
      1. Rich 11
        Reply Icon

        Re: Yet still the unwise go and buy this crap!

        The quality of video, and not having a camera operator, will make for some very shoddy pr0ns.

        You can guarantee that someone somewhere will get off on the fact that it's a shoddy piece of work.

        3 0 Reply
        1. handleoclast
          Reply Icon

          Re: You can guarantee...

          You can guarantee that someone somewhere will get off on the fact that it's a shoddy piece of work.

          Rule 34: On the internet, there is porn of it. No exceptions.

          They're known as "candids."

          2 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    is the "attacker" a shoreditch japanese bearded hipster?

    1 0 Reply
  5. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Joke

    David Attenborough narrates....

    Here once again the placid herd of internet camera users is surreptitiously attacked by this internet parasite. Noiselessly inserting itself into the heart of the users camera it is a voracious consumer of bandwidth and processing cycles, doing whatever it has been programmed to do.

    10 0 Reply
    1. Adrian 4
      Reply Icon

      Re: David Attenborough narrates....

      <cut to wildebeest slaughter>

      3 0 Reply
  6. Winkypop Silver badge
    Stop

    Just apply the "DC Patch"

    Infestation aside: yet another use for Duct Tape.

    2 0 Reply
  7. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Go

    "Infestation aside: yet another use for Duct Tape."

    Indeed.

    10 pack Duct Tape.

    Not just for 'nappers and serial killers.

    0 0 Reply

  8. This post has been deleted by its author

  9. AustinTX
    Linux

    Using generic Chinese Foscam clones

    I have their internet access cut off at the router so they can't call out or be reached from outside. Likewise, all of my embedded/IOT-like things are restricted to communicating with specific IP addresses on the LAN. Namely, my workstation and my web server where I run ZoneMinder to record activity.

    1 0 Reply
  10. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    "I have their internet access cut off... they can't call out or be reached from outside."

    I'd love to see if anyone has any statistics about what percentage of attacks is stopped cold just by doing this.

    You'd think by now malware writers have found ways around this but my instinct is that it's still surprisingly effective.

    0 0 Reply

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