Your Home Router Might Be Part of a Zombie Army (IoT Botnet Hacking Stories)

Is your home router secretly living a double life? In this IoT hacking episode, we dive into the fascinating and terrifying history of “TheMoon” botnet. From its origins as a mysterious worm, to its explosive growth to a massive scale, powering a notorious criminal proxy network called "Faceless". You will understand how it works, why it spreads, and how to ensure your device isn’t part of this horde. Whether you are a seasoned security professional or just curious about how hackers compromise hardware devices, this breakdown combines the gripping story of the botnet’s evolution, along with core technical concepts behind the threat. Additionally, we will understand how to mitigate these forms of attacks, and how we can prevent our devices being added to a botnet population. ⚠️ DISCLAIMER: This video is for educational purposes and authorized security awareness only. Please always practice hacking and other related techniques in an isolated and controlled environment that you own, ethically! WANNA listen to more "IoT Hacking" stories?    • Playlist   ⌨️ TECHNICAL CONCEPTS Botnets & Worms: How self-replicating malware infects vulnerable devices on their own to conscript them into an army https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cybe... https://www.malwarebytes.com/computer... Basic analysis of the Linksys E-series command injection attacks that lead to RCE https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Linksys+Wo... More to come in the next few episodes! 🗓️ Timeline of “TheMoon” Botnet 2014 | Initial exploitation of the Linksys E-series routers (CVE-2025-34037 - command injection) 2016 | Researcher Bing Liu from Fortinet discovered that ASUS routers are being targeted (CVE-2014-9583). New modules such as peer-to-peer (P2P) communications, and additional iptables firewall rules have been added. 2017 onwards | Team@360 NetLab discovered that 6 other IoT device vulnerabilities have been added, with devices from other brands such as D-Link, Vivotek, TP-Link. 2024 | Botnet grows to a staggering scale of 40,000 bots from over 88 countries, forming the backbone of a notorious cybercriminal-based proxy service known as “Faceless” 📚 CHAPTERS 00:00 Botnet & Worms 01:53 Linksys E-series routers (2014) 04:45 ASUS routers (2016) 05:32 D-Link, Vivotek (2017 onward) 05:55 "Faceless" proxy (2024) 06:18 Remote Management, Misconfigurations & End-of-Support 07:05 Mitigation 07:20 Why is this botnet successful? 🔗 RESOURCE LINKS 1. Blog posts by Johannes Ullrich of the initial discovery of the botnet (Linksys routers) https://isc.sans.edu/diary/17621 https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Linksys+Wo... https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Linksys+Wo... 2. 2016 (Fortinet) https://www.fortinet.com/blog/threat-... 3. 2017 onwards (360 NetLab) https://blog.netlab.360.com/themoon-b... 4. What is a honeypot? https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/cyb... 🔗 ASSSET ATTRIBUTIONS Static Burst 2 by SilverIllusionist -- https://freesound.org/s/696594/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 Whoosh sound pack: f_Synth_Whoosh_21.wav by cyclonek -- https://freesound.org/s/529410/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 Tearing paper sound effects: tearing paper_16.wav by Dymewiz -- https://freesound.org/s/111120/ -- License: Attribution 4.0 UI pop sound effects: Bubble Pop UI and Game Sounds Multiple Samples by el_boss -- https://freesound.org/s/669921/ -- License: Creative Commons 0 Zombie groan sound effect Zombie groan.wav by ThisIsMiniMe -- https://freesound.org/s/327404/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 Keyboard typing sound effect Old Keyboard Typing 8.wav by KittyKatHunter -- https://freesound.org/s/644842/ -- License: Creative Commons 0 Jack Black salute GIF https://tenor.com/view/school-of-rock... Penguin throwing thrash https://giphy.com/gifs/Feathersonabst... Puppet image https://pin.it/7L6OainIe Thinking stick figure https://pin.it/6TknWSI7q Walking zombie video https://pixabay.com/videos/halloween-... Computer worm image https://pin.it/7mnwBhnBf Router casing removal clip courtesy of Matt Brown (YouTube):    • UART Root Shell on Linux Router - Hacking ...   Dive GIF https://giphy.com/gifs/14uzPzKMOuVIPu Really really really bad GIF https://giphy.com/gifs/drunkhistory-c... Don’t worry GIF https://giphy.com/gifs/paramountplus-... ⛓️ LET’S CONNECT! LinkedIn:   / jarrettgxz   Github: https://github.com/Jarrettgohxz #IoTHacking #Cybersecurity #Botnet #TheMoonBotnet #InfoSec