At least 30,000 media devices were sold in Germany with pre-installed malware that ensnared them into a botnet, Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) said on Thursday.
The infected photo frames and streaming devices were running older Android versions and were infected with the BadBox malware prior to arriving on shelves, the German cybersecurity agency says.
BSI says it has sinkholed the communication between the BadBox bots and their command-and-control (C&C) servers, instructing all internet providers in the country with more than 100,000 subscribers to help redirect traffic to the sinkhole.
The cybersecurity agency says it will work together with the internet providers to identify BadBox bots and alert consumers, and recommends that all infected devices be disconnected from the internet.
It also recommends that all users scan their devices for potential signs of infection and that they check the reliability of manufacturers and the security settings of devices before making purchases.
BadBox was initially detailed in October last year, after cybersecurity vendor Human Security discovered that over 70,000 Android smartphones, CTV boxes, and tablet devices from at least one Chinese manufacturer were shipped pre-installed with the Triada malware.
As part of the BadBox campaign uncovered by Human Security, roughly 280,000 Android and iOS devices were being abused to conduct various ad-fraud schemes through tens of applications designed to connect to a fake supply-side platform (SSP).
Human Security also discovered that BadBox would allow threat actors to create WhatsApp messaging accounts and Gmail accounts, to turn devices into residential proxies, and to remotely install new applications and code.
Installed on low-cost devices via a supply chain compromise, BadBox resides on the firmware partition and cannot be removed by the end-user.
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