As botnets continue to evolve, so do the techniques required to detect them. While Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption is widely adopted for secure communications, botnets leverage TLS to obscure command-and-control (C2) traffic. These malicious actors often have identifiable characteristics embedded within their TLS certificates, opening a potential pathway for advanced detection techniques.
In first-of-its-kind research, Rapid7’s Dr. Stuart Millar, in collaboration with Kumar Shashwat, Francis Hahn and Prof. Xinming Ou, at the University of South Florida, studied the use of AI large language models (LLMs) to detect botnets’ use of TLS encryption by analyzing embedding similarities to weed out botnets within a sea of benign TLS certificates.
Read more…
Source: Rapid7
Related:
- EMudhra Intermediate CA Certificates Compromised
October 22, 2026
Eight intermediate certificate authority (CA) private keys belonging to Indian CA eMudhra Limited were compromised due to a critical cryptographic defect during the certificate generation process. The private keys in this incident were generated with insufficient randomness, allowing potential attackers to derive the private keys from the public certificates. The weakness in cryptography allows third ...
- Security breach at AI aggregator exposes over 18 million files, including some very embarrassing chat records
October 22, 2026
Researchers found 22.7TB of exposed data from AI aggregator 302.ai, including chat logs and personal information. Leaked records contained user prompts, AI responses, metadata, and sensitive corporate documents. Incident highlights the risks of sharing confidential data with third-party AI platforms and services Read more… Source: Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter The latest cyber security news ...
- How APT41 revived the BlackLotus bootkit to attack diplomatic organizations in Central Asia
October 22, 2026
Back in October 2022, Kaspersky GReAT was looking into a peculiar advertisement on a hacking forum. A cybercriminal had been advertising a UEFI bootkit, dubbed BlackLotus, that could bypass Secure Boot, for $5,000. Given the low price for such powerful capabilities, the cybersecurity community initially took this advertisement with a grain of salt. As no ...
- Government websites in Europe and elsewhere go dark as software flaw sparks security scramble
October 21, 2026
Government websites in Europe and elsewhere went offline on Wednesday after the disclosure of critical vulnerabilities in a widely used programming language sent website operators scrambling to protect their systems. Developers of the PHP programming language said Tuesday they had identified two critical vulnerabilities and urged users to update their sites as soon as a fix ...
- Grocery giant Ahold Delhaize confirms cyberattack forced US and European systems offline
October 19, 2026
Dutch grocery giant Ahold Delhaize, which operates US supermarket chains Food Lion, Giant Food, and Stop & Shop, said it proactively took IT systems offline following a cyberattack, affecting most of its US and European brands. The multinational chain originally disclosed the incident on October 12. “Ahold Delhaize is experiencing a security issue within its network,” ...
- Florida DMV hacked after police dept insecurely stored login info
October 19, 2026
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) has begun notifying victims impacted by a recent data breach of driver’s license and motor vehicle data, but not everyone whose information was stolen will receive an alert. In a notice posted Friday, FLHSMV confirmed that it took “immediate steps” after discovering that “a malicious actor ...