Hajime -- Possibly the Most Advanced IoT Botnet To Date

[N3v3r3nding_N3wb]

Hajime is a very advanced botnet that infects Internet of Things devices to (supposedly) protect the device from other infectious botnets.

Spoiler

"Once Hajime infects an Internet-connected camera, DVR, and other Internet-of-things device, the malware blocks access to four ports known to be the most widely used vectors for infecting IoT devices. It also displays a cryptographically signed message on infected device terminals that describes its creator as 'just a white hat, securing some systems.'"

The next part is very detailed, so read the article if you want in-depth info. For the purposes of my summary, I'm going to do a very high-level overview.

Hajime is at the very forefront of botnet technology. Whoever created it is very talented. 

Spoiler

"Hajime goes to great lengths to maintain resiliency. It uses a BitTorrent-based peer-to-peer network to issue commands and updates. It also encrypts node-to-node communications. The encryption and decentralized design make Hajime more resistant to takedowns by ISPs and Internet backbone providers. After researchers from Rapidity Networks in October uncovered a flaw in the encryption implemented in an earlier version of Hajime, a Hajime developer updated the botnet software to fix it."

Hopefully, this guy is really just wanting to do good, not just shutting out competition and planning a future takeover of infected devices. Also, the IoT industry better step up their game. It shouldn't be up to vigilantes to plug their security holes.

 

Source: arstechnica.com/security/2017/04/a-vigilante-is-putting-huge-amount-of-work-into-infecting-iot-devices/

[LAwLz]

Fun fact: It is able to spread partially because of backdoors deliberately put into products such as some ARRIS modems.

This is why the whole "just make a backdoor but only allow the government to use it" is such an idiotic idea it is only ever said by people who don't know the first thing about computer security.

[Teddy07]

Why should I care if my camera is infected?

Yeah, they can see and hear me but who cares?

[N3v3r3nding_N3wb]

26 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

Why should I care if my camera is infected?

Yeah, they can see and hear me but who cares?

Well, if you're not joking, your complacency is why companies, the government, etc. can take advantage of us normal citizens with basically no consequences.

[cj09beira]

30 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

Why should I care if my camera is infected?

Yeah, they can see and hear me but who cares?

the problem is they use your Internet connection plus a few thousand others to bring sites down 

[HelplmChoking]

41 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

Why should I care if my camera is infected?

Yeah, they can see and hear me but who cares?

 

So having a guy sitting outside your window watching and listening to you at all times wouldn't bother you?

[Aereldor]

1 hour ago, Teddy07 said:

Why should I care if my camera is infected?

Yeah, they can see and hear me but who cares?

You might not give a shit for privacy, but rolling over and taking surveillance and treating your privacy like it's meaningless undermines that of other people. Think about it this way;

 

All the musicians in the city charge $100 per performance, and there's an agreement that they will never settle for less, as that will reduce the chances of others getting paid as much. This balance continues until suddenly, a group of musicians decides $50 is okay. Once clients notice them, they'll see that they can pay less and still get the same, and they'll eventually pay less musicians $100, and ultimately drop the overall wage.

 

Same principle with privacy. If less people care, those who do are going to get the short end of the stick.

[tlink]

2 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Most of the money made off our data comes from market research and targeted ads.

Can't stop all of it but I do my best.

More importantly I just indiscriminately block all ads at the router level.

So in the end those shenanigans they up to is all for naught.

 

If everyone was like me and started poisoning data collection, idiot companies and organisations will give up trying to invade our privacy.

Like I give a shit about 'free' website access. Win10 is 'free' look where it got us.

i try to support websites i really like with a donation or something. just like youtube people, if they have patreon i try to support that and otherwise just buy some cool posters from their merch store.

[Master Disaster]

6 hours ago, Teddy07 said:

Why should I care if my camera is infected?

Yeah, they can see and hear me but who cares?

You should.

 

Let's look at some of the horror stories shall we, iot enabled vibrators being hacked and videos sold, iot enabled children's toys being hacked and videos and audio files being sold, botnets of webcams being used to DDOS websites etc.

 

Right now your camera might be recording you, your wife/gf or your kids doing intimate things, it might be using your internet connection to do illegal things.

 

Trust me you'll care when videos of you, your wife (or god forbid your kids but let's not think about that one shall we) masturbating appear on PornHub. You might be thinking that I'm over emphasising this for dramatic effect but trust me I'm not, its already happened, that and much worse.

[ChineseChef]

Until the companies suffer significant financial damages for their blatant lack of security, this will never change.  I don't honestly think even financial hardship will change things, because only the companies that got hit would bother to change, and then they will go under because the masses only buy the cheapest product. 

 

Until the consumers care more about quality than price, there is no incentive for the companies.  And until one of these botnets is used to take down a government, no government is going to do anything to prevent it.  Once AI really takes off for the hacking crowd, then everyone will have no option but to take it serious.  Until then, I expect 0 movement to fix these kinds of problems.

[vkm]

What are the odds of being infected by a botnet on a PC and not being able to detect it? I'm computer savvy but sometimes my internet is completely abnormal and I just have to wonder...