Mass Hacking on Autopilot: Exploiting Abandoned Backdoors
2025-01-12
The watchTowr team uncovered a novel attack vector: leveraging vulnerabilities in abandoned web shells (like r57shell and c99shell) to gain access to thousands of systems. These often contain unpatched flaws, allowing attackers to commandeer compromised systems with minimal effort. By registering 40+ domains, they monitored over 4000 live backdoors, targeting governments, universities, and businesses. The research highlights the security risks posed by abandoned infrastructure and underscores the need for continuous security testing.