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A massive botnet comprising over 100,000 unique IP addresses from more than 100 countries has launched a coordinated campaign targeting Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) services in the United States. The campaign, first detected by GreyNoise researchers on October 8, 2025, was identified after a significant spike in malicious traffic, particularly from Brazilian IP space, prompted a deeper investigation into global attack patterns. The botnet's activity is characterized by two primary attack vectors: RD Web Access timing attacks and RDP web client login enumeration, both designed to exploit weaknesses in RDP authentication and access mechanisms. Analysis revealed that the vast majority of attack traffic shared a similar TCP fingerprint, with only the Maximum Segment Size (MSS) varying, likely due to differences in the compromised botnet clusters. This technical uniformity, along with the synchronized timing and consistent attack patterns, strongly suggests centralized control by a single threat actor or group. The source IPs involved in the campaign span over 100 countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Iran, China, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Ecuador, indicating the global reach and scale of the botnet. The campaign's primary focus is on US-based RDP services, raising concerns about potential unauthorized access, data breaches, and lateral movement within targeted networks. The attacks are ongoing and have been described as highly coordinated, with the botnet operators likely activating the infected nodes specifically for this campaign. Security researchers have advised organizations to implement strict access controls for RDP services, such as restricting access via VPNs or firewalls, to mitigate the risk posed by such large-scale automated attacks. The use of login enumeration and timing attacks suggests the attackers are probing for valid credentials and weaknesses in authentication flows, which could lead to successful brute-force or credential-stuffing attempts. The campaign's discovery underscores the persistent threat posed by botnets leveraging globally distributed infrastructure to evade traditional geofencing and IP-blocking defenses. Organizations are urged to monitor RDP access logs for unusual activity, apply multi-factor authentication, and ensure that RDP endpoints are not exposed directly to the internet. The scale and sophistication of this botnet operation highlight the evolving tactics of cybercriminals targeting remote access services, especially in the wake of increased remote work and reliance on RDP. The coordinated nature of the attacks, as well as the technical indicators observed, provide valuable intelligence for defenders seeking to identify and block malicious RDP traffic. This incident serves as a reminder of the critical importance of securing remote access protocols and maintaining robust network segmentation to limit the impact of potential intrusions. Ongoing monitoring and threat intelligence sharing are essential to detect and respond to such widespread and rapidly evolving attack campaigns.
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Security researchers reported a coordinated global campaign using more than 100,000 IP addresses to scan for exposed Remote Desktop Protocol services, with activity notably targeting systems in the United States. The two references describe the same large-scale RDP scanning operation and do not provide an earlier distinct event date.
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Multiple incident reports show attackers repeatedly using exposed or weakly protected **Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)** as both an entry point and an internal movement channel. In one intrusion, an actor brute-forced a local administrator account over RDP, created additional access, used **Mimikatz** to dump credentials and Kerberos tickets, and moved across systems before deploying an **XMRig**-based Monero miner. Separate reporting on **Conti** and other hands-on-keyboard operations shows similar post-compromise tradecraft, including credential theft, reconnaissance, use of remote management utilities, and abuse of legitimate Windows administration features to avoid dropping obvious backdoors. Ransomware and espionage cases show the same pattern extending to interactive remote-control tooling beyond standard RDP. ASEC reported **Crysis/Dharma** and **Venus** ransomware actors brute-forcing RDP, stealing credentials, terminating processes, deleting shadow copies, and encrypting systems, sometimes retrying with a second ransomware family after a failed first attempt. North Korea-linked **Kimsuky** has also used **RDP Wrapper**, patched Terminal Services, **VNC**, **Chrome Remote Desktop**, **Ngrok**, and malware such as **AppleSeed**, **Amadey**, and **RftRAT** to maintain GUI-based access, evade user awareness, and support keylogging, file theft, and persistent control of compromised hosts.
Aug 14, 2026
Russian and China-linked threat activity has relied on common but effective entry points to penetrate government, telecom, defense, energy, and other critical-sector networks. Ukrainian officials said CERT-UA recorded **5,927 cyber incidents** in 2025, a **37.4% increase** over the prior year, with Russian groups including **UAC-0002 (Sandworm)**, **UAC-0001 (APT28)**, **UAC-0010 (Gamaredon)**, and **UAC-0190 (Void Blizzard)** using exposed **RDP** services, vulnerable **VPN** appliances, supply-chain compromise, phishing, and stolen credentials to gain access. Separately, telecom intrusions tied to the China-linked cluster **UAT-9244** used exposed web applications, **ProxyLogon**, exposed **SSH** services, weak credentials, and unpatched server software to establish footholds in Linux-heavy environments. Once inside, the actors deployed a broad toolset for espionage, persistence, and disruption, including RATs, stealers, ransomware, wipers, and Linux malware such as **PeerTime**, which supports multiple architectures and uses peer-to-peer, BitTorrent-like communications to avoid reliance on centralized command-and-control. The reporting highlights exploitation of products including **Cisco ASA/AnyConnect**, **Roundcube**, **Fortinet**, **WinRAR**, **7-Zip**, and legacy Microsoft Office components, alongside social-engineering tactics such as **ClickFix**, device-code phishing, OAuth phishing, and QR-code hijacking. The campaigns also abused legitimate services and native system tools, while under-monitored embedded Linux devices, routers, edge systems, and container hosts were described as especially attractive for long-term persistence, lateral movement, scanning, and covert communications.
Jun 29, 2026
The RondoDox botnet has emerged as a significant threat, actively targeting a wide array of internet-exposed infrastructure by exploiting over 50 known vulnerabilities, many of which were first disclosed during Pwn2Own hacking competitions. Security researchers from Trend Micro and FortiGuard Labs have observed the botnet leveraging an 'exploit shotgun' approach, simultaneously deploying numerous exploits to maximize infection rates across diverse device types. The campaign has been active globally since at least June 2025, with attacks focusing on routers, digital video recorders (DVRs), network video recorders (NVRs), CCTV systems, web servers, and other network devices from more than 30 vendors. Notably, the botnet exploits both recent and older vulnerabilities, including CVE-2023-1389 in the TP-Link Archer AX21 Wi-Fi router, which was originally demonstrated at Pwn2Own Toronto 2022 and previously targeted by Mirai. The list of exploited vulnerabilities includes CVE-2024-3721, CVE-2024-12856, and many others affecting brands such as Digiever, QNAP, LB-LINK, TRENDnet, D-Link, TBK, Four-Faith, Netgear, AVTECH, TOTOLINK, Tenda, Meteobridge, Edimax, and Linksys. Many of these vulnerabilities are now included in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, underscoring the urgency for organizations to patch affected systems. Devices that have reached end-of-life are particularly at risk, as they are less likely to receive security updates, making them attractive targets for the botnet operators. The campaign exposes organizations to risks including data exfiltration, persistent network compromise, and operational disruption, especially for those with internet-facing infrastructure. Security experts recommend prioritizing the patching of all listed vulnerabilities, conducting regular vulnerability assessments, segmenting networks to limit lateral movement, and continuously monitoring for anomalous device activity. Trend Micro has indicated that its solutions provide protection against the vulnerabilities exploited by RondoDox, offering mitigation while patching is underway. The rapid weaponization of vulnerabilities demonstrated at Pwn2Own highlights the need for organizations to monitor disclosures from such competitions and act swiftly to secure their environments. The RondoDox botnet’s ability to quickly expand its arsenal of exploits demonstrates a high level of adaptability and threat actor sophistication. The campaign’s global reach and the diversity of targeted devices suggest that organizations across multiple sectors are at risk. The use of mass n-day exploitation, rather than relying solely on zero-day vulnerabilities, allows the botnet to compromise a large number of devices that may not be promptly patched. Security researchers emphasize the importance of defense-in-depth strategies to mitigate the impact of such widespread exploitation campaigns. The ongoing activity of RondoDox serves as a stark reminder of the persistent threat posed by botnets leveraging known vulnerabilities in widely deployed network devices.
Jun 29, 2026