Scanning Finds Over 3.6 Million Internet-Accessible MySQL Servers
The Shadowserver Foundation warns of the security risk associated with more than 3.6 million internet-exposed MySQL servers that accept connections on port 3306/TCP. While scanning the internet for accessible MySQL servers, the organization’s researchers identified a total population of roughly 5.4 million IPv4 and IPv6 instances on port 3306/TCP, but say that only two-thirds of these appear to accept a connection. The scanning revealed that the US is home to the largest number of IPv4 MySQL servers (at more than 740,000), followed by China (just shy of 300,000), and Germany (at roughly 175,000). The Shadowserver Foundation’s research is meant to raise awareness on the wide attack surface created by MySQL servers that are potentially unnecessarily exposed to the internet.