🔴 AI-Powered CARBONATO Botnet Steals Credentials to Fund Its Own LLM Gateway

CARBONATO is a Docker-based botnet that has been active since at least October 2024. ThreatDown discovered the operation after finding an unauthenticated container registry exposed to the internet. The registry contained the attackers’ entire toolchain and revealed details about how the botnet operates.

In just one day of passive, read-only collection, researchers gathered 4.3 GB of image data, including 59 repositories, 234 tags, and 605 verified file blobs. The registry also exposed the configuration history of the images, revealing command-and-control addresses, bot tokens, and even the shared password for the attackers’ own AI gateway.

The operation appears to be linked to Costa Rica, although researchers say the infrastructure could also be used by someone operating from elsewhere. The initial infection method is relatively simple.