Next Generation Mirai targets ARC devices

If you're looking for the IoT botnet of the future then look no further than this beastie.

Dubbed Okiru, this variant of the Mirai malware is believed to be the first ever to target the popular ARC SoC architecture.

ARC (Argonaut RISC Core) embedded processors are a family of 32-bit CPUs, used in SoC devices for storage, home, mobile, cars, TVs, security and a plethora of other Internet of Things applications.  So popular, the family is fitted to over 1.5 billion devices every year…

Mirai wreaked havoc with only around 100,000 devices infected eventually growing to 500,000 devices using just 60 default passwords – passwords that people either don’t change or can’t change because they’re hard-coded into the firmware.

With such a volume and diversity of devices, this could clearly have the potential for creating the largest and most disruptive botnet ever created.

At the time of writing, Virus Total had reported this variant being clocked by 20 different anti-virus companies in the wild.