Malware botnet bricked 600,000 routers in mysterious 2023 attack

Black Lotus Labs reports a destructive botnet campaign nicknamed 'Pumpkin Eclipse' that, between October 25–27, 2023, rendered approximately 600,000 SOHO routers permanently inoperable at a single U.S. ISP by deploying the Chalubo malware: an in-memory MIPS binary using ChaCha20-encrypted C2, Lua-based command modules, and destructive payloads that forced hardware replacement and caused a 49% modem loss across the provider's ASN.