Intel Name: Inside water barghest’s rapid exploit-to-market strategy for iot devices
Date of Scan: November 22, 2024
Impact: Medium
Summary: Water Barghest is a sophisticated botnet that rapidly exploits vulnerabilities in IoT devices, compromising them to create a vast network of over 20,000 devices by October 2024. The botnet automates the process of scanning public internet databases, such as Shodan, to identify and target vulnerable IoT devices. Once compromised, the Ngioweb malware is deployed to turn these devices into proxies. The entire process, from infection to the device being listed on a residential proxy marketplace, is highly efficient and can be completed in as little as 10 minutes. This rapid exploit-to-market strategy allows Water Barghest to quickly monetize compromised IoT devices.
