WatchDog Malware

The WatchDog Malware is designed to harvest a computer's hardware resources to mine for a cryptocurrency known as Monero or XMR for short. It appears that the creators of this threat have managed to keep their operation under the radar for over two years and, during this time, the WatchDog cryptocurrency mining botnet has managed to generate a lot of money for the criminals behind it.

The WatchDog Malware targets powerful servers primarily by exploiting old vulnerabilities in popular server software suites like Elasticsearch, Apache, Drupal and others. Allegedly, the criminals are abusing over thirty exploits to try and find a weakness in their target's security. Once the attack is successful, the WatchDog Malware is deployed, and a Trojanized cryptocurrency mining process is started. So far, at least 470 active copies of the WatchDog Malware have been identified – both Windows and Linux servers are targeted by the attack.

Cryptojacking attacks continue to be a profitable venture for cybercriminals, and the introduction of new botnets like WatchDog is proof that more and more criminals are looking to profit from the growing prices of cryptocurrency. As usual, malware of this type relies on vulnerabilities in outdated software. Network administrators need to take the necessary steps to ensure that their operating systems and software are updated regularly so that their defenses would be impenetrable by threats like the WatchDog Malware.