The "BlueKeep" remote code execution vulnerability, which could have an effect similar to the WannaCry bug from 2017, is currently attacking vulnerable machines that are apparently compromised for cryptocurrency mining purposes, according to media reports.

The BlueKeep vulnerability exists in unpatched versions of Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

According to security researcher Kevin Beaumont, several honeypots in his EternalPot RDP honeypot network started to crash and reboot. 

They've been active for almost half a year and this is the first time they came down. For some reason, the machines in Australia did not crash, the researcher said in a tweet, Bleeping Computer reported on Sunday.

Security researchers, including Beaumont who originally named the vulnerability and Marcus Hutchins, also known as "MalwareTech", who was responsible for hitting the kill switch that stopped the WannaCry bug, have confirmed that a widespread BlueKeep exploit attack is now currently underway. 

Hutchins was quoted as saying by the Wired that "BlueKeep has been out there for a while now. But this is the first instance where I've seen it being used on a mass scale.”

Around 735,000 Windows computers remained vulnerable to BlueKeep according to one internet-wide search by Rob Graham, a security researcher and founder of Errata Security. 

Interestingly, BlueKeep has the ability to spread itself from one machine to another, while the attackers are searching for vulnerable unpatched Windows systems that have Remote Desktop Services (RDP) 3389 ports exposed to the Internet. 

For now though, this looks like being an attack campaign with a cryptocurrency miner payload, according to Forbes.

The WannaCry bug in 2017 infected almost 250 million computers, causing an estimated $4 billion to $8 billion damage. 

With IANS inputs