Mirai (malware)
Malware that turns computer systems running Linux into remotely controlled "bots" / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mirai (from the Japanese word for "future", 未来) is malware that turns networked devices running Linux into remotely controlled bots that can be used as part of a botnet in large-scale network attacks. It primarily targets online consumer devices such as IP cameras and home routers.[1] The Mirai botnet was first found in August 2016[2] by MalwareMustDie,[3] a white hat malware research group, and has been used in some of the largest and most disruptive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, including an attack on 20 September 2016[4] on computer security journalist Brian Krebs' website, an attack on French web host OVH,[5] and the October 2016 DDoS attacks on Dyn.[6][7] According to a chat log between Anna-senpai (the malware's original author) and Robert Coelho, Mirai was named after the 2011 TV anime series Mirai Nikki.[8]
Original author(s) | Paras Jha, Josiah White and Dalton Norman |
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Repository | |
Written in | C (agent), Go (controller) |
Operating system | Linux |
Type | Botnet |
License | GNU General Public License v3.0 |
Website | github![]() |
The software was initially used by the creators to DDoS Minecraft servers and companies offering DDoS protection to Minecraft servers, with the authors using Mirai to operate a protection racket.[9] The source code for Mirai was subsequently published on Hack Forums as open-source.[10] Since the source code was published, the techniques have been adapted in other malware projects.[11][12]