Researchers at AT&T AlienLabs have discovered newly surfaced malware that is difficult to detect and written in Google’s open-source programming language. Researchers beleive that the malware has the potential to exploit millions of routers and IoT devices. The malware has been named BotenaGo and can exploit more than 30 different vulnerabilities. BotenaGo is written in Goland, a language published by Google in 2007, and operates by creating a backdoor into a targeted device. It then waits to either receive a target to attack from a remote operator or from another related module running on the same machine, according to resarchers.
Golang, also referred to as Go, aims to simplify how software is built through making it easy for developers to compile the same code for different systems. However, this feature may be the reason why the language has risen in popularity with malware developers in the last few years as it also simplifies the process of spreading malware on multiple operating systems. There has been a 2,000% increase in malware code written in Go being found in the wild, according to Intezer research. It remains unclear which threat actor developed BotenaGo. Researchers are currently trying to determine the full scale of devices succeptible to the malware. Antivirus protections do not recognize the malware, according to researchers.
Read More: Millions of Routers, IoT Devices at Risk from New Open-Source Malware
