Stealthy Malware Has Infected Thousands of Linux Systems for Years

Quick Summary:

Perfctl malware is hard to detect, persists after reboots, and can perform a breadth of malicious activities.

The unknown developers of the malware gave the process a name that combines the perf Linux monitoring tool and ctl, an abbreviation commonly used with command line tools.

The admin wanted help investigating the cause.“I only became aware of the malware because my monitoring setup alerted me to 100% CPU utilization,” the admin wrote in the April 2023 post.“However, the process would stop immediately when I logged in via SSH or console.

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Article Details

Author / Journalist: Dan Goodin, Ars Technica

Category: TechnologyEconomy

Markets: United StatesIndonesiaMali

Topics: Security / Cyberattacks and Hacks Security

Source Website Secure: Yes (HTTPS)

News Sentiment: Negative

Fact Checked: Legitimate

Article Type: News Report

Published On: 2024-10-05 @ 13:30:00 (12 hours ago)

News Timezone: GMT +8:00

News Source URL: wired.com

Language: English

Article Length: 1573 words

Reading Time: 9 minutes read

Sentences: 72 lines

Sentence Length: 22 words per sentence (average)

Platforms: Desktop Web, Mobile Web, iOS App, Android App

Copyright Owner: © Wired

News ID: 22896972

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Official Website: wired.com

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