Our first story of 2026 revealed how a harmful new botnet known as Kimwolf has contaminated greater than two million gadgets by mass-compromising an enormous variety of unofficial Android TV streaming containers. At this time, we’ll dig via digital clues left behind by the hackers, community operators and companies that seem to have benefitted from Kimwolf’s unfold.
On Dec. 17, 2025, the Chinese language safety agency XLab printed a deep dive on Kimwolf, which forces contaminated gadgets to take part in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) assaults and to relay abusive and malicious Web site visitors for so-called “residential proxy” companies.
The software program that turns one’s gadget right into a residential proxy is usually quietly bundled with cellular apps and video games. Kimwolf particularly focused residential proxy software program that’s manufacturing unit put in on greater than a thousand completely different fashions of unsanctioned Android TV streaming gadgets. In a short time, the residential proxy’s Web tackle begins funneling site visitors that’s linked to advert fraud, account takeover makes an attempt and mass content material scraping.
The XLab report defined its researchers discovered “definitive proof” that the identical cybercriminal actors and infrastructure had been used to deploy each Kimwolf and the Aisuru botnet — an earlier model of Kimwolf that additionally enslaved gadgets to be used in DDoS assaults and proxy companies.
XLab mentioned it suspected since October that Kimwolf and Aisuru had the identical writer(s) and operators, primarily based partially on shared code modifications over time. But it surely mentioned these suspicions had been confirmed on December 8 when it witnessed each botnet strains being distributed by the identical Web tackle at 93.95.112[.]59.
Picture: XLab.
RESI RACK
Public information present the Web tackle vary flagged by XLab is assigned to Lehi, Utah-based Resi Rack LLC. Resi Rack’s web site payments the corporate as a “Premium Sport Server Internet hosting Supplier.” In the meantime, Resi Rack’s advertisements on the Web moneymaking discussion board BlackHatWorld check with it as a “Premium Residential Proxy Internet hosting and Proxy Software program Options Firm.”
Resi Rack co-founder Cassidy Hales advised KrebsOnSecurity his firm obtained a notification on December 10 about Kimwolf utilizing their community “that detailed what was being executed by one in all our prospects leasing our servers.”
“Once we obtained this e-mail we took care of this situation instantly,” Hales wrote in response to an e-mail requesting remark. “That is one thing we’re very disenchanted is now related to our identify and this was not the intention of our firm in anyway.”
The Resi Rack Web tackle cited by XLab on December 8 got here onto KrebsOnSecurity’s radar greater than two weeks earlier than that. Benjamin Brundage is founding father of Synthient, a startup that tracks proxy companies. In late October 2025, Brundage shared that the folks promoting numerous proxy companies which benefitted from the Aisuru and Kimwolf botnets had been doing so at a brand new Discord server known as resi[.]to.
On November 24, 2025, a member of the resi-dot-to Discord channel shares an IP tackle accountable for proxying site visitors over Android TV streaming containers contaminated by the Kimwolf botnet.
When KrebsOnSecurity joined the resi[.]to Discord channel in late October as a silent lurker, the server had fewer than 150 members, together with “Shox” — the nickname utilized by Resi Rack’s co-founder Mr. Hales — and his enterprise companion “Linus,” who didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Different members of the resi[.]to Discord channel would periodically publish new IP addresses that had been accountable for proxying site visitors over the Kimwolf botnet. Because the screenshot from resi[.]to above reveals, that Resi Rack Web tackle flagged by XLab was utilized by Kimwolf to direct proxy site visitors way back to November 24, if not earlier. All advised, Synthient mentioned it tracked not less than seven static Resi Rack IP addresses related to Kimwolf proxy infrastructure between October and December 2025.
Neither of Resi Rack’s co-owners responded to follow-up questions. Each have been energetic in promoting proxy companies through Discord for practically two years. Based on a evaluation of Discord messages listed by the cyber intelligence agency Flashpoint, Shox and Linus spent a lot of 2024 promoting static “ISP proxies” by routing numerous Web tackle blocks at main U.S. Web service suppliers.
In February 2025, AT&T introduced that efficient July 31, 2025, it might not originate routes for community blocks that aren’t owned and managed by AT&T (different main ISPs have since made related strikes). Lower than a month later, Shox and Linus advised prospects they might quickly stop providing static ISP proxies on account of these coverage modifications.
Shox and Linux, speaking about their determination to cease promoting ISP proxies.
DORT & SNOW
The acknowledged proprietor of the resi[.]to Discord server glided by the abbreviated username “D.” That preliminary seems to be brief for the hacker deal with “Dort,” a reputation that was invoked continuously all through these Discord chats.
Dort’s profile on resi dot to.
This “Dort” nickname got here up in KrebsOnSecurity’s latest conversations with “Forky,” a Brazilian man who acknowledged being concerned within the advertising and marketing of the Aisuru botnet at its inception in late 2024. However Forky vehemently denied having something to do with a sequence of huge and record-smashing DDoS assaults within the latter half of 2025 that had been blamed on Aisuru, saying the botnet by that time had been taken over by rivals.
Forky asserts that Dort is a resident of Canada and one in all not less than two people at present in command of the Aisuru/Kimwolf botnet. The opposite particular person Forky named as an Aisuru/Kimwolf botmaster goes by the nickname “Snow.”
On January 2 — simply hours after our story on Kimwolf was printed — the historic chat information on resi[.]to had been erased with out warning and changed by a profanity-laced message for Synthient’s founder. Minutes after that, all the server disappeared.
Later that very same day, a number of of the extra energetic members of the now-defunct resi[.]to Discord server moved to a Telegram channel the place they posted Brundage’s private data, and usually complained about being unable to seek out dependable “bulletproof” internet hosting for his or her botnet.
Hilariously, a person by the identify “Richard Remington” briefly appeared within the group’s Telegram server to publish a crude “Comfortable New Yr” sketch that claims Dort and Snow are actually in command of 3.5 million gadgets contaminated by Aisuru and/or Kimwolf. Richard Remington’s Telegram account has since been deleted, but it surely beforehand acknowledged its proprietor operates an internet site that caters to DDoS-for-hire or “stresser” companies in search of to check their firepower.
BYTECONNECT, PLAINPROXIES, AND 3XK TECH
Studies from each Synthient and XLab discovered that Kimwolf was used to deploy packages that turned contaminated methods into Web site visitors relays for a number of residential proxy companies. Amongst these was a part that put in a software program growth package (SDK) known as ByteConnect, which is distributed by a supplier often called Plainproxies.
ByteConnect says it focuses on “monetizing apps ethically and free,” whereas Plainproxies advertises the power to supply content material scraping corporations with “limitless” proxy swimming pools. Nonetheless, Synthient mentioned that upon connecting to ByteConnect’s SDK they as an alternative noticed a mass inflow of credential-stuffing assaults concentrating on e-mail servers and fashionable on-line web sites.
A search on LinkedIn finds the CEO of Plainproxies is Friedrich Kraft, whose resume says he’s co-founder of ByteConnect Ltd. Public Web routing information present Mr. Kraft additionally operates a internet hosting agency in Germany known as 3XK Tech GmbH. Mr. Kraft didn’t reply to repeated requests for an interview.
In July 2025, Cloudflare reported that 3XK Tech (a.ok.a. Drei-Ok-Tech) had change into the Web’s largest supply of application-layer DDoS assaults. In November 2025, the safety agency GreyNoise Intelligence discovered that Web addresses on 3XK Tech had been accountable for roughly three-quarters of the Web scanning being executed on the time for a newly found and demanding vulnerability in safety merchandise made by Palo Alto Networks.
Supply: Cloudflare’s Q2 2025 DDoS menace report.
LinkedIn has a profile for an additional Plainproxies worker, Julia Levi, who’s listed as co-founder of ByteConnect. Ms. Levi didn’t reply to requests for remark. Her resume says she beforehand labored for 2 main proxy suppliers: Netnut Proxy Community, and Brilliant Information.
Synthient likewise mentioned Plainproxies ignored their outreach, noting that the Byteconnect SDK continues to stay energetic on gadgets compromised by Kimwolf.
A publish from the LinkedIn web page of Plainproxies Chief Income Officer Julia Levi, explaining how the residential proxy enterprise works.
MASKIFY
Synthient’s January 2 report mentioned one other proxy supplier closely concerned within the sale of Kimwolf proxies was Maskify, which at present advertises on a number of cybercrime boards that it has greater than six million residential Web addresses for lease.
Maskify costs its service at a price of 30 cents per gigabyte of information relayed via their proxies. Based on Synthient, that value vary is insanely low and is much cheaper than another proxy supplier in enterprise at present.
“Synthient’s Analysis Crew obtained screenshots from different proxy suppliers exhibiting key Kimwolf actors making an attempt to dump proxy bandwidth in change for upfront money,” the Synthient report famous. “This strategy probably helped gas early growth, with related members spending earnings on infrastructure and outsourced growth duties. Please word that resellers know exactly what they’re promoting; proxies at these costs usually are not ethically sourced.”
Maskify didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The Maskify web site. Picture: Synthient.
BOTMASTERS LASH OUT
Hours after our first Kimwolf story was printed final week, the resi[.]to Discord server vanished, Synthient’s web site was hit with a DDoS assault, and the Kimwolf botmasters took to doxing Brundage through their botnet.
The harassing messages appeared as textual content information uploaded to the Ethereum Title Service (ENS), a distributed system for supporting sensible contracts deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. As documented by XLab, in mid-December the Kimwolf operators upgraded their infrastructure and commenced utilizing ENS to raised face up to the near-constant takedown efforts concentrating on the botnet’s management servers.
An ENS document utilized by the Kimwolf operators taunts safety corporations making an attempt to take down the botnet’s management servers. Picture: XLab.
By telling contaminated methods to hunt out the Kimwolf management servers through ENS, even when the servers that the botmasters use to manage the botnet are taken down the attacker solely must replace the ENS textual content document to replicate the brand new Web tackle of the management server, and the contaminated gadgets will instantly know the place to search for additional directions.
“This channel itself depends on the decentralized nature of blockchain, unregulated by Ethereum or different blockchain operators, and can’t be blocked,” XLab wrote.
The textual content information included in Kimwolf’s ENS directions also can function brief messages, similar to people who carried Brundage’s private data. Different ENS textual content information related to Kimwolf provided some sage recommendation: “If flagged, we encourage the TV field to be destroyed.”
An ENS document tied to the Kimwolf botnet advises, “If flagged, we encourage the TV field to be destroyed.”
Each Synthient and XLabs say Kimwolf targets an enormous variety of Android TV streaming field fashions, all of which have zero safety protections, and plenty of of which ship with proxy malware inbuilt. Typically talking, in case you can ship an information packet to one in all these gadgets you too can seize administrative management over it.
In the event you personal a TV field that matches one in all these mannequin names and/or numbers, please simply rip it out of your community. In the event you encounter one in all these gadgets on the community of a member of the family or buddy, ship them a hyperlink to this story (or to our January 2 story on Kimwolf) and clarify that it’s not definitely worth the potential trouble and hurt created by holding them plugged in.
