"RapperBot DDoS Malware Adds Cryptojacking as New Revenue Stream"

New samples of the RapperBot botnet malware now include cryptojacking capabilities for cryptocurrency mining on compromised Intel x64 machines. Developers added the cryptomining component separately from the botnet malware at first. At the end of January, the botnet and cryptocurrency mining capabilities were merged. Since June 2022, researchers at Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs have been monitoring RapperBot activity and have reported that the Mirai-based botnet focused on brute-forcing Linux SSH servers to recruit them for launching Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. In November, the researchers discovered an updated version of RapperBot that used a Telnet self-propagation mechanism and contained Denial-of-Service (DoS) commands for attacks against gaming servers. FortiGuard Labs recently reported an updated RapperBot variant that uses the XMRig Monero miner on Intel x64 architectures. According to the cybersecurity company, this campaign has been active since January and primarily targets Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This article continues to discuss the new RapperBot mining campaign.

Bleeping Computer reports "RapperBot DDoS Malware Adds Cryptojacking as New Revenue Stream"