Pierluigi Paganini
June 10, 2025
Akamai researchers warn that multiple Mirai botnets exploit the critical remote code execution vulnerability CVE-2025-24016 (CVSS score of 9.9) affecting Wazuh servers.
Wazuh is an open-source security platform used for threat detection, intrusion detection, log data analysis, and compliance monitoring. Organizations commonly deploy it to monitor endpoints and infrastructure for suspicious or malicious activity.
“Starting in version 4.4.0 and prior to version 4.9.1, an unsafe deserialization vulnerability allows for remote code execution on Wazuh servers. DistributedAPI parameters are a serialized as JSON and deserialized using `as_wazuh_object` (in `framework/wazuh/core/cluster/common.py`). If an attacker manages to inject an unsanitized dictionary in DAPI request/response, they can forge an unhandled exception (`__unhandled_exc__`) to evaluate arbitrary python code.” reads the advisory. “The vulnerability can be triggered by anybody with API access (compromised dashboard or Wazuh servers in the cluster) or, in certain configurations, even by a compromised agent. Version 4.9.1 contains a fix.”
Researchers are aware of a PoC code to exploit this issue for arbitrary code execution.
Akamai SIRT observed active exploitation of CVE-2025-24016 RCE flaw via DAPI request abuse. The researchers reported that two Mirai botnet variants, including “Resbot” (featuring Italian domain names), have been exploiting the bug since March 2025. This marks the first known active abuse since its February disclosure.
“We observed two campaigns of Mirai variants exploiting this vulnerability.” reads the report published by Akamai. “One of these, “Resbot,” has Italian nomenclature involved in its domains, possibly alluding to the targeted geography or language spoken by the affected device owner.”
In March 2025, attackers exploited CVE-2025-24016 in Wazuh servers using a shell script to deploy the first variant of Mirai spotted by Akamai, mainly LZRD, across IoT devices. These samples, named “morte,” support multiple architectures and link to C2 domains like nuklearcnc.duckdns[.]org and galaxias[.]cc. Other samples (e.g., “neon,” “k03ldc”) showed ties to V3G4 and LZRD variants with unique console strings. The botnet also exploited other vulnerabilities, including Hadoop YARN, TP-Link AX21, and ZTE routers, using dynamic infrastructure to evade detection and spread rapidly.
In May 2025, a second botnet exploited the Wazuh endpoint using a shell script to deploy “resgod,” a Mirai variant with the string “Resentual got you!” Like the first variant, it targets multiple IoT architectures. It uses domains with Italian names (e.g., gestisciweb.com), suggesting a focus on Italian-speaking victims. The malware communicates with 104.168.101[.]27 via TCP port 62627 and spreads via FTP and telnet. It exploits several RCEs, including in Huawei, Realtek, ZyXEL routers, using unencrypted strings and broad scanning capabilities for rapid propagation.
Akamai published indicators of compromise (IoC) to detect the Mirai botnet variants.
“The propagation of Mirai continues relatively unabated, as it remains rather straightforward to repurpose and reuse old source code to set up or create new botnets. And botnet operators can often find success with simply leveraging newly published exploits.” concludes the report.
Recently, researchers from Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky discovered a new variant of the Mirai botnet that exploits a command injection vulnerability (CVE-2024-3721) in TBK DVR-4104 and DVR-4216 digital video recording devices.
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