Protecting Drupal Sites from Botnet Attacks: Lessons from "Drupalgeddon 2"

In 2018, Drupal faced a major security threat known as "Drupalgeddon 2," a serious Remote Code Execution vulnerability that exposed many unpatched sites to attacks. According to a detailed blog post by Drew Webber on Acquia, the vulnerability led to the rise of a self-propagating botnet, focusing primarily on Drupal 7 installations. Attackers exploited this flaw to inject malicious scripts, which downloaded cryptocurrency mining software and propagated further by targeting other vulnerable servers. 

Acquia implemented platform-level mitigation swiftly, protecting its hosted sites, but observed over 1.3 million attacks per day at the peak of the botnet's activity. Despite attempts to shut down the Command and Control (C&C) server, it remained active for weeks, highlighting the importance of timely patch management. The blog emphasizes how unpatched Drupal sites allowed the botnet to expand rapidly, stressing the need for urgent security updates in widely used CMS platforms.