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Researchers with NetScout s Atlas Security Engineering and Response Team are warning that attackers are abusing certain versions of the Plex media server app to strengthen and amplify various DDoS attacks.
The NetScout researchers believe that about 27,000 Plex media servers are vulnerable to the type of DDoS amplification attacks described in a new report. The Plex media server application works with Windows, Linux and macOS operating systems and normally lets users share video and other media with other devices.
The application can also connect with other devices. such as network-attached storage devices and external RAID storage units.
In the incidents that NetScout found, numerous DDoS-for-hire services were using the vulnerable Plex app to send junk traffic to targeted victims to overwhelm their networks and cause a crash.
Get Permission Threat actors behind a distributed denial-of-service campaign targeted the same set of victims again after the organizations failed to pay the initial ransom, a new report by security firm Radware finds.
The report notes the victims were first hit by the unidentified group in August or September 2020. Then, when the victims failed to pay the initial ransom demand, they were sent additional ransom extortion emails in December 2020 and January, with the threat actors demanding between five and 10 bitcoins ($160,000 and $320,000).
Soon after the victims received the second set of threatening messages, the organizations were hit with a DDoS attack that exceeded 200Gbps and lasted more than nine hours without interruption, the report notes.