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A Massive Brute Force Attack Campaign: A Threat to Cybersecurity

A weeks-long brute force attack campaign by malicious actors has reached unprecedented proportions, according to the Shadowserver Foundation, a non-profit security organization.

Scale of the Attack

The campaign, which has been ongoing since January, involves as many as 2.8 million IP addresses daily, targeting VPN devices, firewalls, and gateways from vendors like Palo Alto Networks, Ivanti, and SonicWall.

"A Serious Concern for Cybersecurity Teams"

"The recent wave of brute force attacks targeting edge security devices, as reported by Shadowserver, is a serious concern for cybersecurity teams," said Brent Maynard, senior director for security technology and strategy at Akamai Technologies. "What makes this attack stand out is both its scale — millions of unique IPs attempting access daily — and the fact that it’s hitting critical security infrastructure like firewalls, VPNs, and secure gateways."

The Threat to Edge Security Devices

"These aren’t just any devices. They’re the frontline defenses that protect organizations from external threats. If an attacker gains control over them, they can bypass security controls entirely, leading to data breaches, espionage, or even destructive attacks," Maynard warned.

What Makes Brute Force Attacks Effective?

In a brute force attack, waves of passwords and usernames inundate a login target in an attempt to discover valid login credentials. Compromised devices may be used for data theft, botnet integration, or illegal network access.

The Risks of Brute Force Attacks

"Traditional approaches such as geoblocking and disallowing large blocks of IP addresses could actually block legitimate web traffic, costing some organizations sales and appearing as if the website is down to potential customers," said Erich Kron, a security awareness advocate at KnowBe4.

The Vulnerability of Credentials

Kris Bondi, CEO and co-founder of Mimoto, a threat detection and response company, asserted that the campaign exposed by Shadowserver highlights the vulnerability of credentials, even at security and infrastructure organizations.

"Brute Force Attacks Are Automated, So They’re Implemented at Scale"

"Brute force attacks are automated, so they’re implemented at scale," Bondi said. "It’s not a question of if they can get in with this approach. The question is how many times the organization will be penetrated this way, and will the security team know when it happens."

The Role of AI in Cyberattack Defense and Prevention

While artificial intelligence contributes to the rise in brute force attacks, it may also foil them. "AI has the potential to be a game-changer in defending against brute force and credential stuffing attacks," Maynard said.

AI-Driven Solutions

Security teams are using AI-driven solutions to detect anomalies, analyze behavior, and automate responses to attacks. "AI is very good at spotting anomalies and patterns. Therefore, AI can be very useful at looking at attempted logins, finding a pattern, and hopefully suggesting ways to filter the traffic," Kron explained.

The Future of AI in Cybersecurity

"AI enables combining anomaly detection with advanced pattern matching to recognize specific people, not credentials, with significantly lower rates of false positives," Bondi predicted. "AI can also help deliver context with alerts, which will enable security teams to prioritize and respond faster to true alerts while reducing false positives."

The expectation is that in the near future, AI will also be able to help predict intent based on specific actions and techniques of an attack, Bondi observed. "While LLMs aren’t capable of this yet, they could be within a few quarters," she added.

Conclusion

The massive brute force attack campaign by malicious actors is a serious concern for cybersecurity teams. The use of AI-driven solutions can help defend against brute force and credential stuffing attacks, but strong authentication needs to be prioritized first. The future of AI in cybersecurity holds promise, but it is crucial to address the vulnerabilities that allow these attacks to succeed.