What Is A Botnet? And How It Works.

Botnets can be detected mostly, on the host, the local network, the provider network, or in sinkholes for the botnet

Here will completely break down best to our knowledge “What is A Botnet? and How it works”

Botnets are networks of computers infected by malware. They are used to send spam, steal data, or launch attacks on other systems, this enables an attacker to command a large network of “bots” to do things in unison also in for things like mining bitcoins, sending out spam or flooding websites with junk commands from a million computers at once in an effort to make them crash…a “distributed denial of service” (DDOS) attack

These computers, known as bots, are often infected with malware that allows the attacker to remotely control them. Botnets are often used to carry out large-scale cyber-attacks, such as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, spamming, and click fraud.

The network of compromised computers that are under the control of a malicious or that infects these programs are often used to send spam, perform distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, or even steal personal information.

What Are Bots?

As it incline to be “A Botnet” in-shorter “Bot” which is abbreviated from robot is a kind of computer software/application that is programed to carry out task as part human activity or on another computer.

Bots are computer programs that are designed to automate certain tasks. They are often used to perform repetitive or mundane tasks, freeing up human workers to focus on more complex and creative tasks.

Bots can be used for a wide range of purposes, including customer service, information gathering, and Entertainment, Bots are computer programs that are designed to automate certain tasks.

They are often used to perform repetitive or mundane tasks, freeing up human workers to focus on more complex and creative tasks. Bots can be used for a wide range of purposes, including customer service, information gathering, and entertainment

This software allows hackers to control the computers remotely. Once a computer has been infected, it becomes part of a larger network called a botnet

How do this computerized devices get infected!!!

Botnet is a number of Internet-connected computers communicating with other similar machines in which components located on networked computers communicate and coordinate their actions by command and control (C&C) or by passing messages to one another (C&C might be built into the botnet as P2P), Bots basically through it’s definitional ability is automated as human representative on the web to carry special task.

A botnet is a collection of hijacked connected devices used for cyber attacks that are controlled remotely from a Command & Control Center (C&C). These typically include personal computers, mobile phones, unsecured IoT devices, and even resources from public cloud services.

Disclaimer Warning ⚠ This Post is only based on educational and learning purposes!!

This article is going to explain 4 components parts as to What botnets are? And How it works

PT1. Interactions between bot herder and host server.

In order to establish communication between a bot herder and a host server, in two different methods Communication establishment between bot herder and host server is done.

CLIENT SERVER NETWORK;- A client-server network is a type of network in which multiple devices, called clients, connect to a central server in order to access shared resources or services. In this type of network, the server is responsible for storing and managing the data, and the clients are responsible for requesting and using the data. This allows for centralized control and management of the network, as well as the ability to easily share resources and services among multiple clients. all of the infected hosts (clients) take commands from and report back to a single central server. In some cases, the attacker will use an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network to communicate. This means that all of the compromised clients must know the right IRC server, port, and channel to connect to in order to communicate with the master server.

Websites;- In most of the occasions the bot herder uses a website (domain name or IP address) as the central point of contact. When the infected bots reach out to the website, they get access to a list of commands to execute. Operating the website is way easier than the IRC network, especially when the client bots are in a large number. Add-ons the entire botnet can get the benefit of an encrypted HTTPS channel to hide their communication.The downside of using this method for cybercriminals is that if the hosting site discovers unusual activity, they can instantly take down such a website. Then the hacker has to create a net centralized point of contact for their botnet.

Peer-to-peer Botnet Network;- Here on this network the bots don’t receive commands through a centralized C&C server; but instead they then pass on commands they receive to other bots which can directly receive incoming connections act as servers (called supernodes) and those that can’t just perform tasks.

Bots sometimes use public key infrastructure, too. The digital signature component makes the detection and interception of peer-to-peer networks quite difficult for security researchers. Digital signing involves using asymmetric encryption that involves two keys — one public, one private.

The government and cyber-security researchers face many challenges when trying to detect P2P networks because they’re frequently decentralized. It’s challenging because they can’t target, monitor and take down any particular server because bots are not communicating with any centralized C&C server, understanding A peer-to-peer (P2P) service is a decentralized platform whereby two individuals interact directly with each other, without intermediation by a third party.

PT2. Recycling New Botnet Army For Attack

Since botnets are network of hijacked internet-connected devices that are installed with malicious codes known as malware

A botnet is created when a malicious actor infects a group of computers with malware known as bots which allows them to be controlled remotely this malware can be spread’Ed in a variety of ways including through phishing emails, infected websites, or by exploiting vulnerabilities in software.

What is a Phishing Mail??? A phishing mail is a type of email that is designed to trick the recipient into believing that it is legitimate and coming from a trusted source, such as a bank or other financial institution.

The goal of a phishing email is to steal sensitive information, such as login credentials or credit card numbers, by tricking the recipient into entering that information on a fake website or by providing it in response to the email.

Phishing emails are often created by criminals who are attempting to steal personal information for financial gain. It is important to be cautious when receiving emails, and to never provide sensitive information unless you are certain that the email is legitimate.

Find out more about attacker’s exploiting from gathered information and compromised to Hack a Debit/Credit Cards Without OTP verification CLICK HERE

What are infected websites??? An infected website is a website that has been compromised by a hacker or other malicious actor who has added code to the site that can harm visitors.

This code can take many forms, such as malware, viruses, ransomware, or other malicious software. When a visitor to the website clicks on a link, downloads a file, or interacts with the site in some way, the code is executed on their device and can cause harm. Meaning if at any point of time a users visit these sites and either download infected media files or click on corrupt links, the botnet trojan then infects their computers or devices.

Exploiting Vulnerabilities in Software??? Taking advantage of weaknesses or flaws that is in a software programs to gain unauthorized access to systems or to cause damage is a way also how a Bot attack occurs. This can be done different kind of various methods, such as writing and running malicious code, using a tool to exploit the vulnerability, or manipulating input data in a way that causes the program to behave in an unintended manner.

The botmaster scans the internet for connected devices that have known vulnerabilities such as CVE-2019-3396, CVE-2020-5902, etc. They exploit these vulnerabilities to insert malware into the devices. Once a device gets infected with a botnet trojan, it also searches for other vulnerable devices to infect and make them join the same botnet network.

PT3. How is a botnet created and how it botnet work!

Botnet can be created for a variety of purposes. In many cases, botnets today are created with the goal to be rented out to people wanting to send a targeted attack.

An attacker keylog their computer, take pictures of their(victims) screen, turn on their webcam and take pics/movies, harvest cdkeys and game keys or even cracks, passwords, aim screen names, emails, you can also spam, flood, DDoS, ping, packet, some have built in md5 crackers, and clone functions to spam other irc channels and overrun a channel and even perform IRC Takeovers.

sending a trojan to someone and when they open it a bot joins your channel on IRC(secretly, they don’t know this)Once done the computer is now refered to as a zombie depending pending on the source you used, the bot can do several things.

Once the bots are infected, the attacker can use them to carry out a wide range of malicious activities, such as sending spam emails, participating in DDoS attacks, or committing click fraud, Once a computer has been infected with a virus, it becomes a zombie machine.

A bot herder leads a collective of hijacked devices with remote commands. Once they’ve compiled the bots, a herder uses command programming to drive their next actions. The party taking command duties may have set up the botnet or be operating it as a rental.

Zombie computers, or bots, refer to each malware-infected user device that’s been taken over for use in the botnet. These devices operate mindlessly under commands designed by the bot herder

• Groom and Expose — hacker exploits a vulnerability to expose users to malware.
• Infect — user devices are infected with malware that can take control of their device.
• Start Up— hackers mobilize infected devices to carry out attacks

1. An attacker kicks off grooming and exposing vulnerabilities in software, website and beings by letting the user be unknowingly exposed to Malwares on a network. hackers exploit security issues in software or websites or deliver the malware through emails and other online messages.
2. On the next phase the bot herder target (victims) now gets infected with malwares and viruses in their devices, Many of these methods either involve users being persuaded via social engineering to download a special Trojan virus. Other attackers may be more aggressive by using a drive-by download upon visiting an infected site, regardless of the delivery method, cyber-criminals ultimately breach the security of several users’ computers.
3. At this point the attacker is ready to carry out threats by taking control of each computer the attacker organizes all of the infected machines into a network of “bots” that they can remotely manage. Often, the cybercriminal will seek to infect and control thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions of computers. The cybercriminal can then act as the boss of a large “zombie network”

PT4.Types of botnet attacks

A number of computers that have been compromised by malware that are under the control of a command and control center.

Malware that is widespread like ZueS tends to have a goal of opening up a computer to become part of a botnet, e.g. on infection they will attempt to dial home either to a web server or IRC channel.

They advantage of this approach is that as the connection is made outbound by the infected computer, firewall policies will usually not block any response back from the command and control center.

Using the botnet malware for cyber attacks, When the perpetrators recruit a large number of infected devices under a botnet canopy, they can use them to execute various types of botnet attacks.

1. Data Theft.

Here, a botnet herder compromises his attacks by taking advantage of information gotten then steal this information in other to use them against the victim. Most are banking details such as credit cards numbers, bank logins.

2. Brute Force.

In botnet brute force attacks, the bots receive a list of websites (or IP addresses) and some pairs of usernames and passwords (generally less than three) from botmaster for each IP address. The bots try to authenticate the given set of credentials on the designated IP. If successful, it reports back to the C&C server. If not, it continues its journey to other IP addresses

3. Distributed denial of service {DDoS}

In a distributed denial of service a bit is used to take control over a whole server overloading it until it eventually crashes. Zombie computers are tasked with swarming websites and other online services, resulting in them being taken down for some time.