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Attack Observatory

What attackers are trying right now

Real, unsolicited login attempts against monitored infrastructure, captured as they happened. Someone scanned, picked a device, and tried to authenticate. This is what they were after — and exactly what they typed.

Loading live capture data…

The last 30 days at a glance

The same capture, summarised: which devices drew the most interest, which credentials were tried most often, and where the traffic came from.

Over the last 30 days, PacketViper recorded 43,756 unsolicited login and reconnaissance attempts from 13,458 unique source IP addresses in 145 countries, against 60 distinct device types. 507 different username and password combinations were tried. Last updated 2026-08-16 19:18 UTC.

The most frequently targeted devices were Cisco Catalyst 2960-X, Microsoft Active Directory (WS2022), Linux Telnetd 1 0, Mikrotik Routeros 7 14 and VMware ESXi 7.0.

Most targeted devices

DeviceAttemptsUnique sources
Cisco Catalyst 2960-X14,8384,308
Microsoft Active Directory (WS2022)4,399596
Linux Telnetd 1 02,3411,214
Mikrotik Routeros 7 142,1561,112
VMware ESXi 7.01,728218
Dell iDRAC91,712569
Microsoft Exchange Server 20191,605571
Cisco ASA 5516-X1,406667
Juniper MX4801,318688
Aruba Networks Arubaos 2930F1,246655
Check Point R81 Gateway1,227712
Apache Log4j1,000572

Most-attempted credentials

UsernamePasswordAttempts
adminadmin132
rootZte52156
root(none)42
rootxc351138
rootroot37
useruser29
admin123426
ftpftp25
defaultdefault25
*1$424
;�admin.$cmd����hello�?>�admin.$cmd����isMaster�…(none)23
rootvizxv23
adminadmin123421
roothi351821
ubntubnt20

Where the attempts came from

CountryAttemptsUnique sources
United States15,5903,807
Britain (UK)2,9361,331
Pakistan2,907462
Ukraine2,6081,025
China2,4161,082
Iran2,35152
Russia2,105498
Argentina1,358687
Brazil1,273632
Netherlands867168
France637356
Canada59459

Networks the attempts originated from

OperatorASNAttempts
GOOGLE-CLOUD-PLATFORMAS3969823,845
MICROSOFT-CORP-MSN-AS-BLOCKAS80752,622
Iran Telecommunication Company PJSAS582242,158
Akamai Connected CloudAS639491,598
Censys, Inc.AS3983241,461
Cyber Internet Services Pvt Ltd.AS95411,154
DIGITALOCEAN-ASNAS140611,064
AMAZON-02AS16509995
Hydra Communications LtdAS25369896
RostelecomAS12683829
ChinanetAS4134811
CHINA UNICOM China169 BackboneAS4837793

How this data is captured

Preemptive defense turns an attacker’s first move into intelligence — before anything of value is touched.

Moving, not static

Static defenses get mapped, and a map is all an attacker needs. Automated Moving Target Defense keeps changing what can be seen and reached, so the picture an attacker assembles is stale before they can act on it. Effort gets spent on ground that has already shifted.

The attempt is the signal

A blocked connection is not a solved problem — it is the beginning of an investigation. Each attempt here carries context: which device drew interest, from where, on which service, and with which credentials. That is what a block count can never tell you.

Credentials, captured intact

The usernames and passwords shown are recorded exactly as submitted. They are the live contents of real attack dictionaries — and a direct answer to the question every operator should ask: would these have worked on my network?

How to read this page

Method

Window: a rolling 30 days of captured activity.
Refresh: the page rebuilds hourly from the live capture store.
Attack Target: the device the source was attempting to authenticate against.
Attempts From Source: that source’s full total for the window, not just the rows shown.

Limits worth stating

Country is derived from the regional internet registry allocation for the source network. That is a registration fact, not a physical location — traffic routed through hosting providers or VPNs will show the registered country of the network, not the operator.
A source address is not a culprit. Many are compromised third-party hosts being used by someone else.
Volume is capped for readability at the 25 most recent attempts per source, so one high-volume scanner cannot fill the table.

Common questions

What usernames and passwords do attackers try most often?

Across the last 30 days the most-attempted combinations were: admin / admin (132 attempts); root / Zte521 (56 attempts); root / no password (42 attempts); root / xc3511 (38 attempts); root / root (37 attempts). These are the live contents of real attack dictionaries, recorded exactly as submitted.

Which devices do attackers target most?

The most frequently targeted devices were Cisco Catalyst 2960-X, Microsoft Active Directory (WS2022), Linux Telnetd 1 0, Mikrotik Routeros 7 14 and VMware ESXi 7.0. In total 60 distinct device types drew unsolicited authentication or reconnaissance attempts.

Which countries do these attacks come from?

By volume the largest sources were United States, Britain (UK), Pakistan, Ukraine and China. Country is derived from the regional internet registry allocation for the source network, which is a registration fact rather than a physical location: traffic routed through hosting providers or VPNs shows the registered country of that network, not the operator behind it.

Is this real attack data?

Yes. Every row is an unsolicited attempt against monitored infrastructure, recorded as it happened. Nothing is simulated or synthesised. The page refreshes hourly and shows a rolling 30-day window.

Does a source IP address identify the attacker?

No. Many source addresses are compromised third-party hosts, or shared hosting and VPN exit points being used by someone else. A source address indicates where traffic arrived from, not who is responsible for it.

See It On Your Network

This is one network’s view. Now picture your plant floor.

PacketViper runs inline in OT and IT networks — agentless, non-intrusive, and surgical enough to scope enforcement to a single device instead of an entire subnet.