Hacker leaks more than 515,000 Telnet credentials in forum

A hacker posted a trove of Telnet credentials for more than 515,000 servers, IoT devices and routers on a hacking forum.

The leaked lists, dated October and November of last year, were published by someone who runs a DDoS-for-hire service and include usernames, passwords and IP addresses, according to a report by ZDNet. The hacker, the report said, scanned the internet to find devices with exposed Telnet ports then ran factory-set credentials and as well as custom password combinations to build bot lists that let hackers access the devices and install malware.

Noting that many of devices likely had been compromised months or years ago, Ekaterina Khrustaleva, COO of ImmuniWeb, said, “It’s likely all these devices have been present on many blacklists for a while already.”