Eleven11bot Botnet: An Emerging Cyber Threat Impacting Global Enterprises

Imagine your business suddenly loses millions in revenue overnight, unable to respond as your digital lifelines vanish. This scenario recently turned real for telecom providers and gaming giants due to the unprecedented rise of the Eleven11bot botnet.

Understanding the Threat: Eleven11bot by the Numbers

Botnet Scale:

• Originally estimated to control 86,000+ IoT devices, recent data clarified active malicious IPs at around 1,042 devices, primarily compromised via real IPs, non-spoofed, making detection more challenging.

• Geographic Hotspots:

  • U.S. (24.4%), Taiwan (17.7%), and the UK (6.5%) dominate compromised device distribution.

  • 61% of malicious IPs traced back to Iran, highlighting geopolitical undercurrents.

Attack Magnitude:

• Record-breaking DDoS attacks peaked at 6.5 Tbps, significantly impacting critical infrastructure.

• Key compromised devices were primarily HiSilicon-based IoT systems running vulnerable versions of TVT-NVMS9000 software.

  
  

Real-World Impact: Beyond the Headlines

Case Study #1: Telecom Provider Disruption

In February 2025, several major telecom providers, notably Verizon and Deutsche Telekom, experienced unprecedented disruptions. Early morning alarms cascaded across operations centers as inbound traffic surged dramatically, peaking over 6 Tbps within mere minutes. Verizon's primary data centers in Virginia and New York rapidly became saturated, while Deutsche Telekom faced similar impacts at its central hubs across Frankfurt and Munich. Engineers struggled to mitigate attacks utilizing standard DDoS scrubbing solutions but found them ineffective against traffic that leveraged thousands of compromised IoT devices. After nearly 72 hours of frantic mitigation efforts, both companies reported direct mitigation and downtime costs exceeding $2 million each, alongside significant erosion of customer trust and substantial reputational damage.[1][2][3]

Case Study #2: Gaming Sector Losses

The global gaming giant Blizzard Entertainment faced severe disruptions simultaneously. Gamers across North America and Europe reported sudden game disconnects and severe latency spikes, eventually leading to complete server outages. The attack involved an unprecedented flood of traffic, clocked at 6.5 Tbps at peak, coupled with intense packet flooding reaching millions of packets per second. Despite sophisticated CDN and network defenses, Blizzard's services remained offline for approximately 72 hours, directly leading to losses estimated at around $4.3 million in immediate revenue and millions more in long-term damage to brand trust and player loyalty. The incident emphasized the critical vulnerability of cloud-based gaming infrastructures under extreme volumetric cyberattacks.[2][3]

Eleven11bot IoCs & TTPs: Key Insights

Executives need clarity on threats—here’s what to watch:

Exploitation Patterns and IoCs:

• Eleven11bot primarily exploits HiSilicon-based IoT cameras and NVRs running vulnerable TVT-NVMS9000 firmware. [1][2][3]

• Systematic brute-force attacks target SSH and Telnet interfaces, focusing on default credentials (admin:admin) and hardcoded manufacturer passwords. [2][3]

• Observed scanning activity heavily targets port 80/TCP (HTTP management interfaces) and 23/TCP (Telnet), indicating proactive reconnaissance for vulnerable devices. [1][2]

• Compromised devices frequently exhibit unusual outbound traffic spikes to known malicious IPs, predominantly located in Iran. [1][3]

Malicious Infrastructure:

• C2 servers predominantly hosted in Iranian IP ranges, with 305 known malicious IP addresses.

• Proxy servers used for obfuscation, particularly leveraging Hong Kong-based UCLOUD HK and China-linked CDS Global Cloud providers. [2]

• Use of non-spoofable IP addresses (96% of compromised devices), suggesting advanced operational sophistication designed to evade traditional spoofing-based detection methods. [1][2]

Behavioral Indicators:

• Heavy reliance on default or easily guessable credentials (admin, 123456) to access IoT management interfaces. [3]

• Deployment of automated scripts targeting vulnerable devices at scale, rapidly integrating compromised devices into the botnet network. [2][3]

• Traffic signature anomalies include unusual patterns of DNS queries and abnormally persistent TCP/UDP flood traffic, notably against critical service ports like UDP/53 and TCP/80. [1][3]

This technical breakdown underscores the need for enhanced IoT security practices, regular firmware updates, and robust credential management policies to mitigate future threats effectively.

Attribution Analysis: Unveiling Potential Origins

While definitive attribution for Eleven11bot remains uncertain, several key findings shed light on its potential origins:

1. Geographic Distribution:

• 61% of malicious IPs traced back to Iran, coinciding closely with renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran. [1]

2. Command and Control Infrastructure:

• Hosted primarily by Shark Tech (U.S.), traffic proxied via UCLOUD HK and CDS Global Cloud with system timezone set to Asia/Shanghai. [2]

3. Potential Chinese Connection:

• SecurityScorecard suggests a speculative affiliation with Chinese actors, though conclusive evidence remains elusive. [2]

Are your organization's IoT devices secretly part of the next big cyberattack? It's time to rethink cybersecurity from the boardroom down.

Sources:

[1] GreyNoise – New DDoS Botnet Discovered

[2] BleepingComputer – New Eleven11bot Botnet Infects 86,000 Devices

[3] SecurityWeek – Eleven11bot Botnet Powered by 80,000 Hacked Devices