Bottom line: A new Mirai variant has been discovered, introducing stealth capabilities that enhance the botnet's ability to evade detection and analysis.
What's happening: The Mirai-V2 variant was discovered in May 2022 by researchers from the security firm, Imperva. It was found to be communicating with command-and-control servers using encrypted protocols, such as TLS 1.2, to conceal its activities. The variant's "sniffer" function scans for default access credentials, including weak passwords and default login settings, to gain unauthorized access to affected networks.
What to do: Security leaders should ensure their systems are up-to-date with the latest security patches, particularly those related to the Mirai botnet variant. Additionally, they should implement multi-factor authentication and monitor network logs for suspicious activity, using tools such as Nmap and Nessus to detect potential vulnerabilities.