Newly discovered malware attacks PCs through routers

Researchers at Kaspersky have discovered a malware that can attack your PC thorough your router!

Nicknamed Slingshot, this malware is pretty sophisticated. Slingshot spies on PCs through a multi-layer attack that targets MikroTik routers. The first thing it does is it replaces a library file with a malicious version, which downloads other malicious components. After that, it launches a complex two-pronged attack on the computers themselves. First, Canhard runs a low-level kernel code and gives the intruder deep access to storage and memory, and GollumApp focuses on user level and includes code to coordinate efforts, manage the file system and keeps the malware alive.

This allows Slingshot to access pretty much whatever it wants. That includes keyboard strokes, network traffic, passwords and screenshots. Kaspersky describes it as a “masterpiece”. They estimate that is has been active for at least six years.

They are not certain who, how, where and when deployed this malware, but it is suspected that some government bodies are responsible for it, and the malware has been spotted in countries with significant terrorism issues, but that’s far from certain.