Somewhere out there a cybercriminal is lining his or her pockets with cryptocurrency. Whoever it is isn't using powerful computers to do the mining. Instead, this individual is using an ever-growing army of enslaved routers to do the dirty work.
Researchers at Trustwave have found a new strain of malware that is targeting a particular brand of router. Devices made by MicroTik are being targeted and so far more than 200,000 have been infected.
The majority of the infections are concentrated in Brazil, but Trustwave has observed devices in other regions being compromised, too.
You might be wondering how it's even possible for a router to do that. It's not as though they advertise that kind of functionality on the package. The fact of the matter is that there's a processor inside a router that's very much like the one in your smartphone or tablet. It's less powerful, but it's still capable of doing much more than connecting you to the Internet and managing wireless connections.
Cryptomining malware may not seem like such a big deal. It's not out to steal your passwords or credit card numbers and it doesn't encrypt your files and demand a ransom, after all. It can cause plenty of trouble, however.
Mining for cryptocurrency can place a very heavy workload on a processor. Heavy workloads cause processors to produce a lot of heat. If that heat doesn't dissipate it can seriously degrade a device's performance. In extreme cases, it can cause a device to fail... sometimes spectacularly.
Some smartphones that have been infected with cryptomining malware have actually gotten hot enough to melt. That's a huge problem in a portable device that packs a volatile lithium-ion battery, but that kind of extreme heat is still a serious concern with a router or broadband modem.
If you happen to own a Microtik router, you can protect yourself from this exploit -- and others like it -- by installing the latest firmware. Trustwave notes that MicroTik released a patch to block this particular attack all the way back in April.
