{"id":231057,"date":"2026-02-11T01:29:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/new-linux-botnet-sshstalker-uses-old-school-irc-for-c2-comms"},"modified":"2026-02-11T01:29:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:29:34","slug":"new-linux-botnet-sshstalker-uses-old-school-irc-for-c2-comms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/new-linux-botnet-sshstalker-uses-old-school-irc-for-c2-comms","title":{"rendered":"New Linux botnet SSHStalker uses old-school IRC for C2 comms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/new-linux-botnet-sshstalker-uses-old-school-irc-for-c2-comms.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A newly documented Linux botnet named SSHStalker is using the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) communication protocol for command-and-control (C2) operations.<\/p>\n<p>The protocol was invented in 1988, and its adoption peaked during the 1990s, becoming the main text-based instant messaging solution for group and private communication.<\/p>\n<p>Technical communities still appreciate it for its implementation simplicity, interoperability, low bandwidth requirements, and no need for a GUI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A newly documented Linux botnet named SSHStalker is using the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) communication protocol for command-and-control (C2) operations. The protocol was invented in 1988, and its adoption peaked during the 1990s, becoming the main text-based instant messaging solution for group and private communication. Technical communities still appreciate it for its implementation simplicity, interoperability, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,418],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cybercrime-malcode","category-internet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}