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Mirai Botnet Actively Exploits Year-Old Flaw in Retired D-Link DIR-823X Routers

End-of-life status means no security fixes, leaving owners at continued risk.

Overview

  • Akamai’s incident team, which detected the campaign in March 2026, confirms active exploitation of CVE-2025-29635 against DIR-823X routers.
  • The bug lets attackers run commands by sending a crafted POST request to the /goform/set_prohibiting endpoint on firmware versions 240126 and 24082.
  • The intrusions download a script that installs a Mirai variant called tuxnokill from 88.214.20.14 and then connect to a hardcoded command server at 64.89.161.130:44300.
  • The attack pattern mirrors a proof-of-concept that researchers posted on GitHub after disclosure and later removed.
  • The same actor also targets TP-Link AX21 and ZTE ZXV10 H108L router flaws, widening risk for home and small-office networks that rely on older hardware.