This anti-worm could patch devices susceptible to the Mirai botnet.
Infosecurity Magazine Explains:
A security researcher has uncovered what is claimed to be an effective way to mitigate the threat from Mirai-powered IoT botnets like the one that caused a massive internet outage over a week ago.
The developer claimed the anti-worm ‘Nematode’ could help patch vulnerable connected devices exploited by Mirai – which scans for default Telnet credentials.
The following explanation was posted on GitHub:
“The idea is to show that devices can be patched by a worm that deletes itself after changing the password to something device- specific or random. Such a tool could theoretically be used to reduce the attack surface. This is meant to only be tested in closed research environments. Use of this software is at your own risk.”
Those discussing the Proof of Concept on Reddit echoed the author's caution, warning that researchers would be breaking the law if they try this out in the wild without getting permission of the owner of any insecure IoT device.