Subj : FBI warns outdated routers are being hacked and hijacked for crim
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Fri May 09 2025 14:15:08

FBI warns outdated routers are being hacked and hijacked for criminal purposes

Date:
Fri, 09 May 2025 13:10:00 +0000

Description:
Multiple Linksys and Cisco models are among those being targeted and 
assimilated into botnets.

FULL STORY
======================================================================FBI 
report warns on risk targeting outdated routers Numerous models have known 
vulnerabilities and are no longer supported FBI claims hackers are 
assimilating the routers into two botnets 

Cybercriminals are targeting old and outdated routers that are no longer 
supported by their vendors, the FBI has warned. 

The agency noted how hackers are exploiting known unpatched vulnerabilities 
to deploy malware on such devices, assimilating them into botnets which are 
later used for attacks, or rented out as proxy services to other criminals. 

These devices are being targeted to be pulled into 5Socks and Anyproxy 
network, two services who didnt start off as malicious, but ended up being 
hijacked by criminals. Chinese threat 

5Socks is a proxy service that offers a large pool of rotating SOCKS5 and 
HTTPS proxies. Its primary use case was web scraping, anonymity, and 
bypassing geo-restrictions. 

Anyproxy, on the other hand, is advertised as a lightweight, open-source 
HTTP/HTTPS proxy tool designed for debugging and modifying web traffic in 
real time. It was often used by developers and testers for intercepting and 
analyzing requests. 

The FBI did not detail which threat actor groups were abusing the two 
services, but it did mention that the routers were being targeted by Chinese 
actors interested in establishing botnets to conceal hacking into US critical 
infrastructures. 

As per the report, the devices currently vulnerable to compromise include a 
number of Linksys and Cisco models: 

E1200
E2500
E1000
E4200
E1500
E300
E3200
WRT320N
E1550
WRT610N
E100
M100
WRT310N 

The agency urged all users to unplug and replace the outdated equipment as 
soon as possible. If they cannot do that, then they should at least disable 
remote administration features and reboot affected devices to minimize the 
chances of getting compromised. 

Routers, being the gateway of all internet traffic on a network, are the 
first and most common target in a cyberattack. 

 Via BleepingComputer You might also like Microsoft reveals major Chinese 
botnet is attacking users across the world Take a look at our guide to the 
best authenticator app We've rounded up the best password managers



======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/fbi-warns-outdated-routers-are-being-ha
cked-and-hijacked-for-criminal-purposes


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