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RondoDox botnet exploits 56 n-day vulnerabilities in global attacks

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4 unique sources, 4 articles

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The RondoDox botnet has been actively exploiting over 50 vulnerabilities across more than 30 vendors since May 2025. The botnet uses an 'exploit shotgun' strategy to maximize infections, targeting both older and more recent vulnerabilities. The list of exploited vulnerabilities includes CVE-2023-1389, a flaw in the TP-Link Archer AX21 Wi-Fi router, and others demonstrated at Pwn2Own events. The botnet's activity poses significant risks, especially for devices that have reached end-of-life and are more likely to remain unpatched. Many users also tend to ignore firmware updates for supported hardware, increasing the risk of exploitation. The botnet targets 35 to 40 vulnerabilities found in consumer-oriented devices, which are often unmanaged and rarely updated. In late September, a 230% surge in the botnet's attacks was reported, fueled by the exploitation of weak credentials, unsanitized input, and old CVEs. The infected devices are abused for cryptocurrency mining, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and for hacking into enterprise networks. The botnet's impact scale is potentially quite large, though not yet fully known. To mitigate the threat, users are advised to apply the latest firmware updates, replace end-of-life equipment, segment their networks, and use strong, unique passwords.

Timeline

  1. 09.10.2025 20:17 4 articles · 5d ago

    RondoDox botnet targets 56 n-day vulnerabilities in global attacks

    The botnet began activities in May 2025. The botnet exploits 50 command injection flaws out of the 56 vulnerabilities. The botnet's impact scale is potentially quite large, though not yet fully known. The botnet targets 35 to 40 vulnerabilities found in consumer-oriented devices. The botnet's tactics are opportunistic and unfocused, spreading across wide geographic regions without bias. The botnet was first documented by Fortinet FortiGuard Labs in July 2025. The botnet's expanded arsenal of exploits includes nearly five dozen security flaws, out of which 18 don't have a CVE identifier assigned. The botnet exploits include vulnerabilities in D-Link, TVT, LILIN, Fiberhome, Linksys, BYTEVALUE, ASMAX, Brickcom, IQrouter, Ricon, Nexxt, NETGEAR, Apache, TBK, TOTOLINK, Meteobridge, Digiever, Edimax, QNAP, GNU, Dasan, Tenda, LB-LINK, AVTECH, Zyxel, Hytec Inter, Belkin, Billion, and Cisco. The latest RondoDox botnet campaign represents a significant evolution in automated network exploitation. The campaign is evolving beyond single-device opportunism into a multivector loader operation.

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