New Mirai Variant Targets Home Routers

Hackers added a new feature to the family of malware that caused massive internet outages in October.

The Mirai malware behind the record-setting botnets that targeted Dyn and security journalist Brian Krebs’ website usually infect internet of things devices like DVRs and webcams. The new variant, however, hones in on a vulnerability in DSL routers.

German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom said the variant hit 900,000 of its customers’ routers Nov. 28, knocking them offline. The malware attack failed to infect the routers, but caused a small percentage to crash. The company implemented a filter on its network traffic and suggested customers unplug routers to reboot them.

Security experts told Threatpost attacks on the vulnerable ports of the routers are increasing around the globe, but are relatively easy to fix.