Hide n' Seek IoT Botnet

Hide n' Seek (HNS) is a botnet under active development that targets Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and is the first of its kind to spread using custom-built peer-to-peer communication.

Threat ID:: CC-2009
Category:: Trojan
Threat Severity:: Low
Threat Vector:
Published:: 1 February 2018 12:00 AM

Report a cyber attack: call 0300 303 5222 or email [email protected]

This content has been archived

This article no longer conforms to NHS Digital's standards for cyber alerts, and may contain outdated or inaccurate information. Use of this information contained in this page is at your own risk

Summary

Hide n' Seek (HNS) is a botnet under active development that targets Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and is the first of its kind to spread using custom-built peer-to-peer communication.

Affected platforms

The following platforms are known to be affected:

Linux

IoT Devices
Windows or Linux-based Web Servers

Microsoft Windows Server

Threat details

HNS randomly generates IP addresses and initiates a connection to each potential target. It then attempts to determine the type of target device and select the most suitable compromise method. If located on the same network then HNS sets up a file transfer server for the target to download the malicious code, otherwise it attempts a remote payload delivery method.

About 20,000 IoT devices have been infected at the time of publication. It currently cannot persist on a device after it has been switched off, but it does use multiple anti-tampering techniques. If successful it could steal data, execute malicious code and interfere with a device's operation.

For further information:

CVE-2016-10401

Threat updates

Date	Update
9 May 2018	A new version of Hide n' Seek has been observed with the ability to maintain persistence. Once it has successfully infected a device, Hide n' Seek will copy itself to the file location /etc/init.d/ and add itself to the boot process list. Note this method only works when the infection is initiated via telnet, as root privileges are required to access the init.d directory.

Remediation advice

To prevent and detect infection, ensure that:

Remediation steps

Type	Step
	All operating systems, antivirus and other security products are kept up to date. All day to day computer activities such as email and internet are performed using non-administrative accounts. Network, proxy and firewall logs should be monitored for suspicious activity. User accounts accessed from infected machines should be reset on a clean computer. Where possible, consideration is given to using SSH (with keys) instead of Telnet. The malware will be removed if the infected device is switched off, but it could then become reinfected after it has been switched back on.

Type

Step

All operating systems, antivirus and other security products are kept up to date.
All day to day computer activities such as email and internet are performed using non-administrative accounts.
Network, proxy and firewall logs should be monitored for suspicious activity.
User accounts accessed from infected machines should be reset on a clean computer.
Where possible, consideration is given to using SSH (with keys) instead of Telnet.

The malware will be removed if the infected device is switched off, but it could then become reinfected after it has been switched back on.

CVE Vulnerabilities

Status

CVE-2016-10401

Last edited: 17 February 2020 12:44 pm