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Researchers have uncovered a rash of ongoing attacks designed to damage routers and other Internet-connected appliances so badly that they become effectively inoperable.
PDoS attack bots (short for "permanent denial-of-service") scan the Internet for Linux-based routers, bridges, or similar Internet-connected devices that require only factory-default passwords to grant remote administrator access. Once the bots find a vulnerable target, they run a series of highly debilitating commands that wipe all the files stored on the device, corrupt the device's storage, and sever its Internet connection. Given the cost and time required to repair the damage, the device is effectively destroyed, or bricked, from the perspective of the typical consumer.
Over a four-day span last month, researchers from security firm Radware detected roughly 2,250 PDoS attempts on devices they made available in a specially constructed honeypot. The attacks came from two separate botnets—dubbed BrickerBot.1 and BrickerBot.2—with nodes for the first located all around the world. BrickerBot.1 eventually went silent, but even now the more destructive BrickerBot.2 attempts a log-on to one of the Radware-operated honeypot devices roughly once every two hours. The bots brick real-world devices that have the telnet protocol enabled and are protected by default passwords, with no clear sign to the owner of what happened or why.
See also this related blog post inspired by this article.
(Score: 2) by gringer on Tuesday April 11 2017, @02:21AM (3 children)
Like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0q7Bnp8ZvY&t=1m1s [youtube.com]
I'm pretty sure Kryptonite are still around, and those locks are still being produced.
Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by gringer on Tuesday April 11 2017, @03:01AM (1 child)
Okay, not those *exact* locks; it looks like Kryptonite (and other similar manufacturers) wizened up to that about 8 years ago, so that any new locks won't be susceptible to exactly the same hack.
Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday April 11 2017, @04:34AM
I think Assa abloy locks are susceptible to a similar defeat.
(Score: 1) by DBeemer on Friday April 14 2017, @08:06AM
I had 2 of those locks with the ballpoint problem and they issued a recall and free replacement in my country.
So after a month or so after returning my locks I received the "Improved" versions, now with a square key design.
I already owned a heavy chain lock with the same key design.
After a couple of weeks I parked my motorcycle at my parents home and went by car to my work. During the day I get a call from my mom, that she needed to move my bike because it stood in the way of something. I replied that she would have to wait because the key to that lock is on my keychain that I had with me at the moment. She Replied, no I already moved your bike......
Turns out the key of my heavy chain lock ALSO fits on the "Improved" Kryptonite locks. So still crap after replacement.