Botnet

Stacheldraht botnet diagram showing a DDoS attack. (Note this is also an example of a type of client-server model of a botnet.)

A botnet is a number of Internet-connected devices, each of which is running one or more bots. Botnets can be used to perform distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack), steal data,[1] send spam, and allow the attacker access to the device and its connection. The owner can control the botnet using command and control (C&C) software.[2] The word "botnet" is a combination of the words "robot" and "network". The term is usually used with a negative or malicious connotation.

Overview

A botnet is a logical collection of internet connected devices such computers, smartphones or IoT devices whose security has been breached and control ceded to a third party. Each such compromised device, known as a "bot", is created when a device is penetrated by software from a malware (malicious software) distribution. The controller of a botnet is able to direct the activities of these compromised computers through communication channels formed by standards-based network protocols such as IRC and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).[3]

Botnets are increasingly rented out by cyber criminals as commodities for a variety of purposes.[4]

Architecture

Botnet architecture has evolved over time in an effort to evade detection and disruption. Traditionally, bot programs are constructed as clients which communicate via existing servers. This allows the bot herder (the person controlling the botnet) to perform all control from a remote location, which obfuscates their traffic.[5] Many recent botnets now rely on existing peer-to-peer networks to communicate. These P2P bot programs perform the same actions as the client-server model, but they do not require a central server to communicate.

Client-server model

A network based on the client-server model, where individual clients request services and resources from centralized servers

The first botnets on the internet used a client-server model to accomplish their tasks. Typically, these botnets operate through Internet Relay Chat networks, domains, or websites. Infected clients access a predetermined location and await incoming commands from the server. The bot herder sends commands to the server, which relays them to the clients. Clients execute the commands and report their results back to the bot herder.

In the case of IRC botnets, infected clients connect to an infected IRC server and join a channel pre-designated for C&C by the bot herder. The bot herder sends commands to the channel via the IRC server. Each client retrieves the commands and executes them. Clients send messages back to the IRC channel with the results of their actions.[5]

Peer-to-peer

A peer-to-peer (P2P) network in which interconnected nodes ("peers") share resources among each other without the use of a centralized administrative system

In response to efforts to detect and decapitate IRC botnets, bot herders have begun deploying malware on peer-to-peer networks. These bots may use digital signatures so that only someone with access to the private key can control the botnet.[6] See e.g. Gameover ZeuS and ZeroAccess botnet.

Newer botnets fully operate over P2P networks. Rather than communicate with a centralized server, P2P bots perform as both a command distribution server and a client which receives commands.[7] This avoids having any single point of failure, which is an issue for centralized botnets.

In order to find other infected machines, the bot discreetly probes random IP addresses until it contacts another infected machine. The contacted bot replies with information such as its software version and list of known bots. If one of the bots' version is lower than the other, they will initiate a file transfer to update.[6] This way, each bot grows its list of infected machines and updates itself by periodically communicating to all known bots.

Core components of a botnet

A botnet's originator (known as a "bot herder" or "bot master") controls the botnet remotely. This is known as the command-and-control (C&C). The program for operation which must communicate via a covert channel to the client on the victim's machine (zombie computer).

Control protocols

IRC is a historically favored means of C&C because of its communication protocol. A bot herder creates an IRC channel for infected clients to join. Messages sent to the channel are broadcast to all channel members. The bot herder may set the channel's topic to command the botnet. E.g. the message :herder!herder@example.com TOPIC #channel ddos www.victim.com from the bot herder alerts all infected clients belonging to #channel to begin a DDoS attack on the website www.victim.com. An example response :bot1!bot1@compromised.net PRIVMSG #channel I am ddosing www.victim.com by a bot client alerts the bot herder that it has begun the attack.[6]

Some botnets implement custom versions of well-known protocols. The implementation differences can be used for detection of botnets. For example, Mega-D features a slightly modified SMTP protocol implementation for testing spam capability. Bringing down the Mega-D's SMTP server disables the entire pool of bots that rely upon the same SMTP server.[8]

Zombie computer

In computer science, a zombie computer is a computer connected to the Internet that has been compromised by a hacker, computer virus or trojan horse and can be used to perform malicious tasks of one sort or another under remote direction. Botnets of zombie computers are often used to spread e-mail spam and launch denial-of-service attacks. Most owners of zombie computers are unaware that their system is being used in this way. Because the owner tends to be unaware, these computers are metaphorically compared to zombies. A coordinated DDoS attack by multiple botnet machines also resembles a zombie horde attack. Many computer users are unaware that their computer is infected with bots.[9]

The process of stealing computing resources as a result of a system being joined to a "botnet" is sometimes referred to as "scrumping.[10]

Command and control

Botnet Command and control (C&C) protocols have been implemented in a number of ways, from traditional IRC approaches to more sophisticated versions.

Telnet

Telnet botnets use a simple C&C Protocol in which bots connect to a main command server to host the botnet. Bots are added to the botnet by using a scanning script, the scanning script is run on a external server and scans IP ranges for telnet and SSH server default logins. Once a login is found it is added to a infection list and infected with a malicious infection line via SSH on from the scanner server. When the SSH command is ran it infects the server and commands the server to ping to the control server and becomes its slave from the malicious code infecting it. Once servers are infected to the server the bot controller can launch DDoS attacks of high volume using the C&C panel on the host server. These types of botnets were used to take down large websites like Xbox and Playstation network by a known hacking group called Lizard Squad. Hackers were also known to sell spots on their botnets allowing the people who purchased the spot to launch dos attacks using their botnet. A few people known to do this were "Proxy", "Joomla", "Narcotix", "Notorious", "Botnado" and various other hackers.

IRC

IRC networks use simple, low bandwidth communication methods, making them widely used to host botnets. They tend to be relatively simple in construction, and have been used with moderate success for coordinating DDoS attacks and spam campaigns while being able to continually switch channels to avoid being taken down. However, in some cases the mere blocking of certain keywords has proven effective in stopping IRC-based botnets. The RFC 1459 (IRC) standard is popular with botnets.

One problem with using IRC is that each bot client must know the IRC server, port, and channel to be of any use to the botnet. Anti-malware organizations can detect and shut down these servers and channels, effectively halting the botnet attack. If this happens, clients are still infected, but they typically lie dormant since they have no way of receiving instructions.[6] To mitigate this problem, a botnet can consist of several servers or channels. If one of the servers or channels becomes disabled, the botnet simply switches to another. It is still possible to detect and disrupt additional botnet servers or channels by sniffing IRC traffic. A botnet adversary can even potentially gain knowledge of the control scheme and imitate the bot herder by issuing commands correctly.[11]

P2P

Since most botnets using IRC networks and domains can be taken down with time, hackers have moved to P2P botnets with C&C as a way to make it harder to be taken down.

Some have also used encryption as a way to secure or lock down the botnet from others, most of the time when they use encryption it is public-key cryptography and has presented challenges in both implementing it and breaking it.

Domains

Many large botnets tend to use domains rather than IRC in their construction (see Rustock botnet and Srizbi botnet). They are usually hosted with bulletproof hosting services. This is one of the earliest types of C&C. A zombie computer accesses a specially-designed webpage or domain(s) which serves the list of controlling commands. The advantages of using webpages or domains as C&C is that a large botnet can be effectively controlled and maintained with very simple code that can be readily updated.

Disadvantages of using this method are that it uses a considerable amount of bandwidth at large scale, and domains can be quickly seized by government agencies without much trouble or effort. If the domains controlling the botnets are not seized, they are also easy targets to compromise with denial-of-service attacks.

Fast-flux DNS can be used as a way to make it difficult to track down the control servers, which may change from day to day. Control servers may also hop from DNS domain to DNS domain, with domain generation algorithms being used to create new DNS names for controller servers.

Some botnets use free DNS hosting services such as DynDns.org, No-IP.com, and Afraid.org to point a subdomain towards an IRC server that harbors the bots. While these free DNS services do not themselves host attacks, they provide reference points (often hard-coded into the botnet executable). Removing such services can cripple an entire botnet.

Others

Calling back to large social media sites[12] such as Twitter,[13][14] Reddit,[15] Instagram,[16] the XMPP open source instant message protocol[17] and Tor hidden services[18] are popular ways of avoiding egress filtering to communicate with a C&C server.[19]

Construction

Traditional

This example illustrates how a botnet is created and used for malicious gain.

  1. A hacker purchases or builds a Trojan and/or exploit kit and uses it to start infecting users' computers, whose payload is a malicious application—the bot.
  2. The bot on the infected PC logs into a particular command-and-control (C&C) server. (This allows the bot master to keep logs of how many bots are active and online.)
  3. The bot master may then use the bots to gather keystrokes or use form grabbing to steal online credentials and may rent out the botnet as DDoS and/or spam as a service or sell the credentials online for a profit.
  4. Depending on the quality and capability of the bots, the value is increased or decreased.

Newer bots can automatically scan their environment and propagate themselves using vulnerabilities and weak passwords. Generally, the more vulnerabilities a bot can scan and propagate through, the more valuable it becomes to a botnet controller community.[20]

Computers can be co-opted into a botnet when they execute malicious software. This can be accomplished by luring users into making a drive-by download, exploiting web browser vulnerabilities, or by tricking the user into running a Trojan horse program, which may come from an email attachment. This malware will typically install modules that allow the computer to be commanded and controlled by the botnet's operator. After the software is downloaded, it will call home (send a reconnection packet) to the host computer. When the re-connection is made, depending on how it is written, a Trojan may then delete itself, or may remain present to update and maintain the modules.

Others

In some cases, a botnet may be temporarily created by volunteer hacktivists, such as with implementations of the Low Orbit Ion Cannon as used by 4chan members during Project Chanology in 2010.[21]

China's Great Cannon of China allows the modification of legitimate web browsing traffic at internet backbones into China to create a large ephemeral botnet to attack large targets such as GitHub in 2015.[22]

Common features

Market

The botnet controller community features a constant and continuous struggle over who has the most bots, the highest overall bandwidth, and the most "high-quality" infected machines, like university, corporate, and even government machines.[27]

While botnets are often named after the malware that created them, multiple botnets typically use the same malware, but are operated by different entities.[28]

Countermeasures

The geographic dispersal of botnets means that each recruit must be individually identified/corralled/repaired and limits the benefits of filtering.

Computer security experts have succeeded in destroying or subverting malware command and control networks, by, among other means, seizing servers or getting them cut off from the Internet, denying access to domains that were due to be used by malware to contact its C&C infrastructure, and, in some cases, breaking into the C&C network itself.[29][30][31] In response to this, C&C operators have resorted to using techniques such as overlaying their C&C networks on other existing benign infrastructure such as IRC or Tor, using peer-to-peer networking systems that are not dependent on any fixed servers, and using public key encryption to defeat attempts to break into or spoof the network.

Norton AntiBot was aimed at consumers, but most target enterprises and/or ISPs. Host-based techniques use heuristics to identify bot behavior that has bypassed conventional anti-virus software. Network-based approaches tend to use the techniques described above; shutting down C&C servers, nullrouting DNS entries, or completely shutting down IRC servers. BotHunter is software, developed with support from the U.S. Army Research Office, that detects botnet activity within a network by analysing network traffic and comparing it to patterns characteristic of malicious processes.

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are analyzing botnets' behavior by simultaneously running one million Linux kernels—a similar scale to a botnet—as virtual machines on a 4,480-node high-performance computer cluster to emulate a very large network, allowing them to watch how botnets work and experiment with ways to stop them.[32]

Historical list of botnets

The first botnet was first acknowledged and exposed by Earthlink during a lawsuit with notorious spammer Khan C. Smith[33] in 2001 for the purpose of bulk spam accounting for nearly 25% of all spam at the time.

Around 2006, to thwart detection, some botnets were scaling back in size.[34]

Date created Date dismantled Name Estimated no. of bots Spam capacity (bn/day) Aliases
2004 (Early) Bagle 230,000[35] 5.7 Beagle, Mitglieder, Lodeight
Marina Botnet 6,215,000[35] 92 Damon Briant, BOB.dc, Cotmonger, Hacktool.Spammer, Kraken
Torpig 180,000[36] Sinowal, Anserin
Storm 160,000[37] 3 Nuwar, Peacomm, Zhelatin
2006 (around) 2011 (March) Rustock 150,000[38] 30 RKRustok, Costrat
Donbot 125,000[39] 0.8 Buzus, Bachsoy
2007 (around) Cutwail 1,500,000[40] 74 Pandex, Mutant (related to: Wigon, Pushdo)
2007 Akbot 1,300,000[41]
2007 (March) 2008 (November) Srizbi 450,000[42] 60 Cbeplay, Exchanger
Lethic 260,000[35] 2 none
Xarvester 10,000[35] 0.15 Rlsloup, Pixoliz
2008 (around) Sality 1,000,000[43] Sector, Kuku
2008 (around) 2009-Dec Mariposa 12,000,000[44]
2008 (November) Conficker 10,500,000+[45] 10 DownUp, DownAndUp, DownAdUp, Kido
2008 (November) 2010 (March) Waledac 80,000[46] 1.5 Waled, Waledpak
Maazben 50,000[35] 0.5 None
Onewordsub 40,000[47] 1.8
Gheg 30,000[35] 0.24 Tofsee, Mondera
Nucrypt 20,000[47] 5 Loosky, Locksky
Wopla 20,000[47] 0.6 Pokier, Slogger, Cryptic
2008 (around) Asprox 15,000[48] Danmec, Hydraflux
Spamthru 12,000[47] 0.35 Spam-DComServ, Covesmer, Xmiler
2008 (around) Gumblar
2009 (May) November 2010 (not complete) BredoLab 30,000,000[49] 3.6 Oficla
2009 (Around) 2012-07-19 Grum 560,000[50] 39.9 Tedroo
Mega-D 509,000[51] 10 Ozdok
Kraken 495,000[52] 9 Kracken
2009 (August) Festi 250,000[53] 2.25 Spamnost
2010 (March) Vulcanbot
2010 (January) LowSec 11,000+[35] 0.5 LowSecurity, FreeMoney, Ring0.Tools
2010 (around) TDL4 4,500,000[54] TDSS, Alureon
Zeus 3,600,000 (US only)[55] Zbot, PRG, Wsnpoem, Gorhax, Kneber
2010 (Several: 2011, 2012) Kelihos 300,000+ 4 Hlux
2011 or earlier 2015-02 Ramnit 3,000,000[56]
2012 (Around) Chameleon 120,000[57] None
2016 (August) Mirai (malware) 380,000 None

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Thingbots: The Future of Botnets in the Internet of Things". Security Intelligence. 20 February 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  2. ↑ "botnet". Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  3. ↑ Ramneek, Puri (2003-08-08). "Bots &; Botnet: An Overview" (PDF). SANS Institute. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  4. ↑ Danchev, Dancho (11 October 2013). "Novice cyberciminals offer commercial access to five mini botnets". Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  5. 1 2 Schiller, Craig A.; Binkley, Jim; Harley, David; Evron, Gadi; Bradley, Tony; Willems, Carsten; Cross, Michael (2007-01-01). Botnets. Burlington: Syngress. pp. 29–75. ISBN 9781597491358.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Heron, Simon (2007-04-01). "Botnet command and control techniques". Network Security. 2007 (4): 13–16. doi:10.1016/S1353-4858(07)70045-4.
  7. ↑ Wang, Ping et al. (2010). "Peer-to-peer botnets". In Stamp, Mark & Stavroulakis, Peter. Handbook of Information and Communication Security. Springer. ISBN 9783642041174.
  8. ↑ C.Y. Cho, D. Babic, R. Shin, and D. Song. Inference and Analysis of Formal Models of Botnet Command and Control Protocols, 2010 ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security.
  9. ↑ Teresa Dixon Murray. "Banks can't prevent cyber attacks like those hitting PNC, Key, U.S. Bank this week". Cleveland.com. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
  10. ↑ Arntz, Pieter (30 March 2016). "The Facts about Botnets". Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  11. ↑ Schiller, Craig A.; Binkley, Jim; Harley, David; Evron, Gadi; Bradley, Tony; Willems, Carsten; Cross, Michael (2007-01-01). Botnets. Burlington: Syngress. pp. 77–95. ISBN 978-159749135-8.
  12. ↑ Zeltser, Lenny. "When Bots Use Social Media for Command and Control".
  13. ↑ Singel, Ryan (13 August 2009). "Hackers Use Twitter to Control Botnet". Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  14. ↑ "First Twitter-controlled Android botnet discovered". 24 August 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  15. ↑ Gallagher, Sean (3 October 2014). "Reddit-powered botnet infected thousands of Macs worldwide". Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  16. ↑ Cimpanu, Catalin (6 June 2017). "Russian State Hackers Use Britney Spears Instagram Posts to Control Malware". Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  17. ↑ Dorais-Joncas, Alexis (30 January 2013). "Walking through Win32/Jabberbot.A instant messaging C&C". Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  18. ↑ Constantin, Lucian (25 July 2013). "Cybercriminals are using the Tor network to control their botnets". Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  19. ↑ "Cisco ASA Botnet Traffic Filter Guide". Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  20. ↑ Attack of the Bots at Wired
  21. ↑ Norton, Quinn (2012-01-01). "Anonymous 101 Part Deux: Morals Triumph Over Lulz". Wired.com. Retrieved 2013-11-22.
  22. ↑ Peterson, Andrea (April 10, 2015). "China deploys new weapon for online censorship in form of 'Great Cannon'". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Operation Aurora — The Command Structure". Damballa.com. Archived from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
  24. ↑ Edwards, Jim (27 November 2013). "This Is What It Looks Like When A Click-Fraud Botnet Secretly Controls Your Web Browser". Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  25. ↑ Nichols, Shaun (24 June 2014). "Got a botnet? Thinking of using it to mine Bitcoin? Don't bother". Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  26. ↑ "Bitcoin Mining". BitcoinMining.com. Archived from the original on 30 April 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  27. ↑ "Trojan horse, and Virus FAQ". DSLReports. Retrieved 7 April 2011.
  28. ↑ Many-to-Many Botnet Relationships, Damballa, 8 June 2009.
  29. ↑ "Detecting and Dismantling Botnet Command and Control Infrastructure using Behavioral Profilers and Bot Informants".
  30. ↑ "DISCLOSURE: Detecting Botnet Command and Control Servers Through Large-Scale NetFlow Analysis" (PDF). Annual Computer Security Applications Conference. ACM. Dec 2012.
  31. ↑ BotSniffer: Detecting Botnet Command and Control Channels in Network Traffic. Proceedings of the 15th Annual Network and Distributed System Security Symposium. 2008. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.110.8092 Freely accessible.
  32. ↑ "Researchers Boot Million Linux Kernels to Help Botnet Research". IT Security & Network Security News. 2009-08-12. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  33. ↑ Credeur, Mary. "Atlanta Business Chronicle, Staff Writer". bizjournals.com. Retrieved 22 July 2002.
  34. ↑ "Hackers Strengthen Malicious Botnets by Shrinking Them" (PDF). Computer; News Briefs. IEEE Computer Society. April 2006. doi:10.1109/MC.2006.136. Retrieved 12 November 2013. The size of bot networks peaked in mid-2004, with many using more than 100,000 infected machines, according to Mark Sunner, chief technology officer at MessageLabs.The average botnet size is now about 20,000 computers, he said.
  35. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Symantec.cloud | Email Security, Web Security, Endpoint Protection, Archiving, Continuity, Instant Messaging Security" (PDF). Messagelabs.com. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
  36. ↑ Chuck Miller (2009-05-05). "Researchers hijack control of Torpig botnet". SC Magazine US. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  37. ↑ "Storm Worm network shrinks to about one-tenth of its former size". Tech.Blorge.Com. 2007-10-21. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
  38. ↑ Chuck Miller (2008-07-25). "The Rustock botnet spams again". SC Magazine US. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
  39. ↑ Stewart, Joe. "Spam Botnets to Watch in 2009". Secureworks.com. SecureWorks. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  40. ↑ "Pushdo Botnet — New DDOS attacks on major web sites — Harry Waldron — IT Security". Msmvps.com. 2 February 2010. Archived from the original on 16 August 2010. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
  41. ↑ "New Zealand teenager accused of controlling botnet of 1.3 million computers". The H security. 2007-11-30. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  42. ↑ "Technology | Spam on rise after brief reprieve". BBC News. 2008-11-26. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  43. ↑ "Sality: Story of a Peer-to-Peer Viral Network" (PDF). Symantec. 2011-08-03. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  44. ↑ "How FBI, police busted massive botnet". theregister.co.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
  45. ↑ "Calculating the Size of the Downadup Outbreak — F-Secure Weblog : News from the Lab". F-secure.com. 2009-01-16. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  46. ↑ "Waledac botnet 'decimated' by MS takedown". The Register. 2010-03-16. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  47. 1 2 3 4 Gregg Keizer (2008-04-09). "Top botnets control 1M hijacked computers". Computerworld. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  48. ↑ "Botnet sics zombie soldiers on gimpy websites". The Register. 2008-05-14. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  49. ↑ "Infosecurity (UK) - BredoLab downed botnet linked with Spamit.com". .canada.com. Archived from the original on 11 May 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  50. ↑ "Research: Small DIY botnets prevalent in enterprise networks". ZDNet. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
  51. ↑ Warner, Gary (2010-12-02). "Oleg Nikolaenko, Mega-D Botmaster to Stand Trial". CyberCrime & Doing Time. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
  52. ↑ "New Massive Botnet Twice the Size of Storm — Security/Perimeter". DarkReading. Retrieved 30 July 2010.
  53. ↑ Kirk, Jeremy (Aug 16, 2012). "Spamhaus Declares Grum Botnet Dead, but Festi Surges". PC World.
  54. ↑ "Cómo detectar y borrar el rootkit TDL4 (TDSS/Alureon)". kasperskytienda.es. 2011-07-03. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
  55. ↑ "America's 10 most wanted botnets". Networkworld.com. 2009-07-22. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  56. ↑ http://phys.org/news/2015-02-eu-police-malicious-network.html
  57. ↑ "Discovered: Botnet Costing Display Advertisers over Six Million Dollars per Month". Spider.io. 2013-03-19. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  58. ↑ Espiner, Tom (2011-03-08). "Botnet size may be exaggerated, says Enisa | Security Threats | ZDNet UK". Zdnet.com. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
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