Researchers from SecurityScorecard's STRIKE team have found that around 50,000 ASUS routers have been compromised in a campaign linked to suspected Chinese cyber espionage. Named "Operation WrtHug," this attack targets outdated ASUS WRT routers, exploiting multiple known vulnerabilities, some dating back to 2023. The primary impact of these breaches is in Taiwan and Southeast Asia, with little to no effect on mainland China, Russia, or the United States. The attackers are taking advantage of six security flaws, including four high-severity command injection bugs from 2023, all rated 8.8, along with other vulnerabilities rated 7.2 and 9.2. STRIKE researchers noted that previous attacks, like the AyySSHush campaign that compromised over 8,000 ASUS routers, show similarities in tactics and targets. Although some devices were affected by both campaigns, STRIKE believes they might be separate but coordinated efforts from the same actors. CISA has alerted users to the presence of unusual self-signed TLS certificates on compromised devices, a significant indicator of infection. These certificates have a long expiration date, which is atypical and raises red flags. The best defense against these threats is to patch the vulnerabilities or upgrade to a router that still receives security updates.