• 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

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

 | 

CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

 | 

Hardcoded credentials found in HPE Aruba Instant On Wi-Fi devices

 | 

MuddyWater deploys new DCHSpy variants amid Iran-Israel conflict

 | 
  • 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
  • Federal prosecutors indicted a 20-year-old man who built the Satori botnet

Federal prosecutors indicted a 20-year-old man who built the Satori botnet

Pierluigi Paganini August 31, 2018

A youngster (20) from Washington was indicted last week on federal computer hacking charges after rival hackers fingered him as the creator of a Mirai variant dubbed Satori.

MalwareMustDie Team: “It’s time for every teenager or young man to know that playing with malware is the fastest way to finish in the jail”

Mirai, Mirai and again Mirai: after the source code has been leaked online gangs of teenagers have been engaged in a new playground. Based on a (solid) software infrastructure Mirai is still able to work well and to be lethal also because the effort to update it is not titanic and the skills of the hacker can be modest. In other words, infecting the Planet nowadays it is (still) very easy and the attack pattern seems clear: download Mirai source code, change the exploits, and everything works fine, but this time the story did not have a happy ending.

The news comes from the legendary Kevin Poulsen who has posted the news on the Daily Beast reporting that “a 20-year-old Washington man was indicted last week on federal computer hacking charges after rival hackers fingered him as the creator of a notorious botnet tearing through routers around the world.”

“last December, researchers at the Check Point cybersecurity firm traced Satori to an amateur known as “Nexus Zeta” who frequented a web forum for untrained and wannabe malicious hackers. Two months later, a little-noticed Pastebin post by rival hackers purported to reveal Nexus Zeta’s real identity, naming the same Kenneth Schuchman indicted last week.” wrote Poulsen.

Then Kenneth Schuchman who “lives in Vancouver, Washington with his father”, now is indicted even if the indictment doesn’t name the malware, but “all signs point to the virulent Satori botnet that surfaced last fall, and has infected at least 500,000 internet routers around the word”, added Kevin Poulsen.

 

The activity of the Satori botnet has been observed by CheckPoint security at the end of 2017, below the findings included in a report published by the firm.

  • “A Zero-Day vulnerability (CVE-2017-17215) in the Huawei home router HG532 has been discovered by Check Point Researchers, and hundreds of thousands of attempts to exploit it have already been found in the wild.
  • The delivered payload has been identified as OKIRU/SATORI, an updated variant of Mirai.
  • The suspected threat actor behind the attack has been identified by his nickname, ‘Nexus Zeta’.” states the report published by Check Point security

satori

The strange thing about those wannabe hackers is that their emotional background plays a crucial role during the investigation: as Mr. Poulsen reports  Kenneth Schuchman wrote on Facebook in 2015 regarding Pokemon Go: “I do black hat hacking all the time and I haven’t even downloaded this game let alone played it.”. From “blackhat hacking all the time” to the jail the passage is short.

I asked a quick comment to Odisseus, an Italian member of the MalwareMustDie team. MalwareMustDie members fight against malware since a long time and is the group who firstly, in the world, discovered and analyzed Mirai for the very first time in the late August 2016 thanks to the excellent reverse engineering skills of their head @unixfreaxjp.

“It’s been two years since Mirai has been discovered and it’s still able to infect thousands of routers around the world: but this news appears like a symbolic anniversary. It is very important to give space to this kind of news because every teenager or young man needs to know that playing with malware is the fastest way to finish in jail”.

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

Edited by Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – cybercrime, botnet)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

botnet Cybercrime Hacking malware Pierluigi Paganini satori Security Affairs

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 26, 2025
Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 26, 2025
Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

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

    recent articles

    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

    Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

    Intelligence / July 25, 2025

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

    Security / July 25, 2025

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

    Malware / July 25, 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