• 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
  • Malware
  • Glupteba botnet is back after Google disrupted it in December 2021

Glupteba botnet is back after Google disrupted it in December 2021

Pierluigi Paganini December 19, 2022

The Glupteba botnet is back, researchers reported a surge in infection worldwide after Google disrupted its operation in 2021.

In December 2021, Google announced it has taken down the infrastructure operated by the Glupteba botnet, it also sued Russian nationals Dmitry Starovikov and Alexander Filippov for creating and operating the botnet.

The blockchain-enabled botnet has been active since at least 2011, researchers estimated that the Glupteba botnet was composed of more than 1 million Windows PCs around the world as of December 2021.

The botnet was involved in stealing users’ credentials and data, mining cryptocurrencies abusing victims’ resources, and setting up proxies to funnel other people’s internet traffic through infected machines and routers.

Botnet operators use to spread the malware via cracked or pirated software and pay-per-install (PPI) schemes.

Now researchers from Nozomi Networks reported that the Glupteba botnet is back, and researchers reported a surge in the number of infections worldwide. Experts noticed a significant increase of malicious bitcoin addresses along with the increase in TOR hidden service being used as C2 servers.

The researchers observed a new campaign that started in June 2022 after the Google lawsuit and is still ongoing.

Nozomi analyzed the entire blockchain to discover the C2 domains used by the botnet, the researchers also downloaded over 1500 Glupteba samples from VirusTotal to track the wallet addresses used by the operators.

Researchers believe that at least five different merchants and exchanges were used to fund the Glupteba addresses since 2019. The experts identified 15 Glupteba bitcoin addresses over 4 years, likely involved in four different campaigns

“For this campaign we were not able to find any samples for 3 of the addresses we gathered. We believe these addresses are not made for testing as they distribute some domains found in other Bitcoin addresses for which we found samples.” reads the post published by Nozomi. “In addition, there was a tenfold increase in TOR hidden service being used as C2 servers since the 2021 campaign.”

Glupteba botnet
The graph shows the transaction to and from the addresses involved in the 2022 campaign

The experts used passive DNS records to uncover Glupteba domains and hosts and analyzed the latest set of TLS certificates used by the bot to figure out the infrastructure used by the attackers.

One of the addresses had 11 transactions and was used by 1,197 samples, with the last seen activity reported on November 8, 2022.

“Even with Google winning a favorable ruling recently, we hoped it would have inflicted a severe blow to Glupteba operations, but almost a year later we can say it most likely did not. Indeed, it took Glupteba about six months to build a new campaign from scratch and distribute it in the wild, and this time on a much larger scale.” concludes the report. “For defenders and responders, we strongly suggest blocking blockchain-related domains like blockchain.info but also Glupteba known C2 domains in your environment. We also recommend monitoring DNS logs and keeping the antivirus software up to date to help prevent a potential Glupteba infection.”

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

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

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Glupteba botnet)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

Blockchain botnet Cybercrime Glupteba Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security malware Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News

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