Security researchers have discovered a new worm and botnet dubbed Gitpaste-12, named for its usage of GitHub and Pastebin to host component code and the 12 known vulnerabilities it exploits to compromise systems.
The Juniper Threat Labs research team detected the first Gitpaste-12 attacks on Oct. 15, 2020; however, the team notes the first commit was seen on GitHub on July 9, meaning the malware had lived on GitHub since then. Researchers reported the Pastebin URL and git repo, which was closed on Oct. 30, 2020, and should stop the spread of the botnet.
Gitpaste-12 has 12 unique attack modules available, though researchers note there is evidence its development is ongoing. Its current targets are Linux-based x86 servers, and Linux ARM and MIPS-based Internet of Things (IoT)…