Pwnd Aethra Routers Used To Brute-Force WordPress Sites (voidsec.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Security researchers found around 8,000 Aethra routers (with no admin passwords) as part of a botnet that attacked WordPress sites, trying to brute-force admin accounts. Most routers were deployed in enterprise networks in Italy. Each device could have be used to launch DDoS attacks with a capability between 1 to 10 Gbps, based on the company's bandwidth. Things could be worse, though: Additional investigation also revealed that some of the routers were also susceptible to various reflected XSS and CSRF attacks that would also allow attackers to take control of the device, even if using different login credentials. Using Shodan, a search engine for locating Internet-connected devices, researchers found over 12,000 of Aethra routers around the world, 10,866 in Italy alone, and over 8,000 of these devices were of the model detected in the initial brute-force attack (Aethra Telecommunications PBX series). At that time, 70% of these Aethra routers were still using their default login credentials

Comments

Protecting WordPress, Basics

[Qbertino]

- 'Rename Login' Plugins - there are various. Use them.
- Use random character strings for usernames, especially admin users. Rename the nicename and the displayname to the role using a db tool.
- use a db prefix other than wp_ , I use random strings.

Do all this upon or directly after the WP installation. This very basic security stuff deters attacks like the one mentioned in TFA and mitigates most of its effects.