# VPNFilter Malware Analysis on Cyber Threat in Smart Home Network
## Open Issues, Challenges, and Solutions  
### Open Issues and Challenges  
The growth of IoT devices used within smart home environments has led to higher security risks, and threats linked to the smart home's inhabitants have been seen to increase. To explain these risks, we consider a scenario consisting of the taxonomy of malware in the smart home network. We have discussed threat detection and mitigation of VPNFilter malware. The scale of cyber-attacks is steadily growing. We should keep in mind that, if the entire smart home system is compromised, attackers will be able to steal personal or sensitive information and invade the privacy of the smart home's inhabitants. They will be able to control the smart home system and even monitor residents inside the smart home environment. When referring to devices in a smart home, we consider several issues and challenges that arise in a smart home system. In particular, the rapid increase of its technologies gives rise to a lot of challenges in the local environment:  
* Privacy in smart home devices is one of the biggest challenges. In the case of unauthorized manipulation of software and hardware in smart home appliances, confidential information may leak. As an example, in the case of VPNfilter malware, the intruder will reprogram the router wherein it sends data in the form of packets not only to the servers but also for the attacker. This raises major societal concerns and issues related to privacy and data storage. It becomes a target for attackers who see it as a way to capture sensitive information about individuals, making them easy targets for attacks such as identity theft, phishing, or fraud [69].
* Vulnerability: Various vulnerabilities as a weakness in the system allow an attacker to access unauthorized data and execute the command VPN filter. This was described as DOS attacks [70]. The smart home system based on two main components, software and hardware, quite often had design flaws. Software vulnerabilities based on malware can be found in the application software and the operating system of the devices. For example, in the router, it is hard to identify and fix hardware vulnerabilities [71]. Several technical vulnerabilities are found to have been caused by human weaknesses.
* Software exploitation: Based on the smart home system and the devices therein, we should consider the possibility of infection by malicious software such as VPNfilter malware, DDoS, DOS, and others. Smart home devices are known to work autonomously, which leads the operating adversaries of systems to search for software vulnerabilities to exploit and gain access where the private information of the system is stored [72]. Nowadays, it is becoming the target of many attacks whose resulting traffic in the devices would serve to run VPNfilter and DOS attack. For example, DDoS attacks were launched using IoT devices against DNS servers to paralyze internet access [73].
* Cost of a smart home: The cost is one of the biggest challenges that should be considered in a smart home environment under a cyber-security attack. The attack increases the cost for the users in terms of their well-being being affected and the devices being compromised. The psychological impact on the user's health and the cost of replacing the infected devices also increase. The manufacturers suffer a cost impact in terms of providing increased security to assure their customers that their products are safe and secure to use. They are required to invest in developing devices that offer robust security measures [74; 75].