New Aeternum C2 Botnet Evades Takedowns via Polygon Blockchain

Aeternum C2 is a novel botnet discovered by Qrator Research Lab that uses Polygon blockchain smart contracts as its sole command-and-control channel, making it resistant to traditional takedown methods. The threat is a C++ loader that fetches permanent smart-contract-based instructions (delivered to infected Windows machines every 2–3 minutes) and supports payloads such as clippers, miners and DDoS activity; it employs anti-VM checks and can be operated cheaply (roughly $1 in MATIC can send 100 commands), enabling persistent, scalable abuse and complicating mitigation.