• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Allianz Life data breach exposed the data of most of its 1.4M customers

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 55

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 534 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

 | 

Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

 | 

Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

 | 

Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

 | 

Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

 | 

Mitel patches critical MiVoice MX-ONE Auth bypass flaw

 | 

Coyote malware is first-ever malware abusing Windows UI Automation

 | 

SonicWall fixed critical flaw in SMA 100 devices exploited in Overstep malware attacks

 | 

DSPM & AI Are Booming: $17.87B and $4.8T Markets by 2033

 | 

Stealth backdoor found in WordPress mu-Plugins folder

 | 

U.S. CISA adds CrushFTP, Google Chromium, and SysAid flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

U.S. CISA urges FCEB agencies to fix two Microsoft SharePoint flaws immediately and added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Sophos fixed two critical Sophos Firewall vulnerabilities

 | 

French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine

 | 

Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

 | 

Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

 | 

SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Cyber Crime
  • Hacking
  • Malware
  • New Emotet botnet is rapidly growing, with +130K unique bots spread across 179 countries

New Emotet botnet is rapidly growing, with +130K unique bots spread across 179 countries

Pierluigi Paganini March 10, 2022

A few months after its return the Emotet botnet has already infected over 130,000 unique bots spread across 179 countries.

The Emotet botnet continues to grow and has infected approximately 130,000 hosts since its resurrection in November 2021.

Early 2021, law enforcement and judicial authorities worldwide conducted a joint operation, named Operation Ladybird, which disrupted the EMOTET botnet. At the time the investigators have taken control of its infrastructure in an international coordinated action. 

This operation was the result of a joint effort between authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Lithuania, Canada and Ukraine, with international activity coordinated by Europol and Eurojust.

The law enforcement agencies were able to take over at least 700 servers used as part of the Emotet botnet’s infrastructure. The FBI collected millions of email addresses used by Emotet operators in their malware campaigns as part of the cleanup operation.

The Emotet banking trojan has been active at least since 2014, the botnet is operated by a threat actor tracked as TA542. The infamous banking trojan was also used to deliver other malicious code, such as Trickbot and QBot trojans, or ransomware such as Conti, ProLock, Ryuk, and Egregor.

In November 2021 researchers from multiple cybersecurity firms ([Cryptolaemus], [GData], and [Advanced Intel]) reported that threat actors were using the TrickBot malware to drop an Emoted loader on infected devices. The experts tracked the campaign aimed at rebuilding the Emotet botnet using TrickBot’s infrastructure as Operation Reacharound.

Since its report Emotet operators have amassed an impressive number of infected systems, researchers from Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs reported.

Researchers pointed out that the new Emotet botnet supports new features to avoid detection and analysis, such as the use encryption for network traffic and the separation of the process list into its own module.

The new version uses elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), with a public key to perform the encryption and a separate algorithm that is used to perform data validation.

The new version is also able to gather additional information about the infected host. Experts also reported significant growth of the C2 pool late February through March 4.

“While Black Lotus Labs tracked more than 300 unique Emotet C2s in May of 2019, the number of unique C2s in the roughly four months since the resurgence is roughly 200. As Figure 2 reflects, when Emotet came back online in November 2021, it did so with a smaller, but relatively consistent pool of Tier 1 C2s.” reads the report published by the experts. “Over the last few months, the C2 pool has continued to grow to an average of 77 unique Tier 1 C2s per day from late February through March 4.”

Emotet botnet C2 growth

One of the most important features in the new Emotet infrastructure is the apparent absence of Bot C2s, which are bots that would receive a UPnP module that enabled an infected device to act as a C2 by opening a port on the user’s router that would then allow it to proxy traffic from Emotet bots to a higher-tier C2.

Most of the Emotet C2s are located in the United States and Germany, the rest of the list of top 10 countries by volume of C2s includes France, Brazil, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Canda, United Kingdom and India.

“The growth and distribution of bots is an important indicator of Emotet’s progress in restoring its once sprawling infrastructure. Each bot is a potential foothold to a coveted network and presents an opportunity to deploy Cobalt Strike or eventually be promoted to a Bot C2.” Black Lotus Labs concludes.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Emotet)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

botnet EMOTET Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security Pierluigi Paganini

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 27, 2025
Allianz Life data breach exposed the data of most of its 1.4M customers
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 27, 2025
SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 55
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Allianz Life data breach exposed the data of most of its 1.4M customers

    Data Breach / July 27, 2025

    SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 55

    Malware / July 27, 2025

    Security Affairs newsletter Round 534 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

    Breaking News / July 27, 2025

    Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

    Cyber Crime / July 26, 2025

    Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

    Intelligence / July 26, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT