Sunday , June 1 2025
diagram

Researchers Unveil Massive Quad7 Botnet Targeting Microsoft 365

Sekoia.io and Intrinsec analyzed the Quad7 (7777) botnet, which uses TCP port 7777 on infected routers to carry out brute-force attacks on Microsoft 365 accounts. Attacks were detected on 0.11% of monitored accounts.

Key insights highlighted by researchers:

Linux flaws enable password hash theft via core dumps in Ubuntu, RHEL, Fedora

The Qualys Threat Research Unit (TRU) found two local information-disclosure vulnerabilities in Apport and systemd-coredump. Both issues are race-condition vulnerabilities....
Read More
Linux flaws enable password hash theft via core dumps in Ubuntu, RHEL, Fedora

Australia enacts mandatory ransomware payment reporting

New ransomware payment reporting rules take effect in Australia yesterday (May 30) for all organisations with an annual turnover of...
Read More
Australia enacts mandatory ransomware payment reporting

Why Govt Demands Foreign CCTV Firms to Submit Source Code?

Global makers of surveillance gear have clashed with Indian regulators in recent weeks over contentious new security rules that require...
Read More
Why Govt Demands Foreign CCTV Firms to Submit Source Code?

CVE-2023-39780
Botnet hacks thousands of ASUS routers

GreyNoise has discovered a campaign where attackers have gained unauthorized access to thousands of internet-exposed ASUS routers. This seems to...
Read More
CVE-2023-39780  Botnet hacks thousands of ASUS routers

Bangladesh Bank instructed using AI to prevent online gambling

The rise of online gambling in the country is leading to increased crime and societal issues. In response, the central...
Read More
Bangladesh Bank instructed using AI to prevent online gambling

251 Amazon-Hosted IPs Used in Exploit Scan for ColdFusion, Struts, and Elasticsearch

Cybersecurity researchers recently revealed a coordinated cloud-based scanning attack that targeted 75 different exposure points earlier this month. On May...
Read More
251 Amazon-Hosted IPs Used in Exploit Scan for ColdFusion, Struts, and Elasticsearch

Zero-Trust Policy bypass to Exploit Vulns & Manipulate NHI Secrets

Recent security research has shown that attackers can weaken zero-trust security frameworks by exploiting a key DNS vulnerability, disrupting automated...
Read More
Zero-Trust Policy bypass to Exploit Vulns & Manipulate NHI Secrets

Evaly E-commerce Platform Allegedly Hacked

Evaly, a Bangladeshi e-commerce platform, is reportedly facing a major data breach that may have exposed sensitive information of around...
Read More
Evaly E-commerce Platform Allegedly Hacked

Exploitable Vulns in Canon Printers Allow Gaining Admin Privileges

A passback vulnerability has been found in some Canon printers, including production and multifunction models. If an attacker gains administrative...
Read More
Exploitable Vulns in Canon Printers Allow Gaining Admin Privileges

184 Million Leaked Credentials Discovered in Open Database

Security researchers have discovered a database with 184 million account credentials, highlighting the need to update compromised passwords, strengthen weak...
Read More
184 Million Leaked Credentials Discovered in Open Database

Botnet Evolution: Quad7 has been active for a long time and continues to evolve. The number of unique IP addresses has decreased from 16,000 in August 2022 to 7,000 in July 2024. The highest number of infected devices are in Bulgaria, Russia, the USA, and Ukraine.

Botnet Targets: Quad7 targets various IoT devices, including IP cameras, NAS devices, and SOHO routers, primarily TP-Link.

TP-Link Detection: Botnet operators disable the TP-Link management interface after compromise, making detection difficult. Researchers used the hping3 tool and found that most devices have a TCP window size characteristic of older Linux kernel versions used in TP-Link routers.

  Source: Sekoia

Researchers observed a TP-Link WR841N router with insecure firmware that allowed access from five different IP addresses. Experts set up remote analysis and utilized the Scapy library to monitor authentication attempts.

After observing for several days, an attack happened when the attacker used a weakness to access files and run code. The hacker used Dropbear on a different port and sent a utility package through an SSH connection. They also stopped the web interface and uploaded files to the router.

The Telnet binary listens on TCP/7777 and redirects incoming connections to a simple authenticated shell named xlogin. Additionally, a Socks5 proxy server listens on SOCKS/11288, through which brute force attacks on Microsoft 365 accounts are conducted.

The Quad7 botnet is targeting Microsoft 365 accounts with Password Spraying attacks. It connects to servers for IP address verification and binary file updates. Important questions about the attacks, vulnerabilities, and botnet’s geographical distribution remain unanswered. Researchers at Sekoia.io ask companies with a wider perspective for help in solving these mysteries.

Check Also

200 billion

Researchers found 200 billion files exposed in cloud buckets

Billions of files, including documents, source code, and backups, are leaking because of misconfigured cloud …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *