Drupal has always been the bridesmaid to WordPress, the bride of content management systems. Now, Drupal has finally become popular, but for the wrong reason: It has become the favorite CMS of cryptomining hackers.

The latest range of attacks targeting Drupal, which seems to be perpetually in the news for yet another security issue, targets CVE-2018-7600 and CVE-2018-7602, two vulnerabilities that had a fix in the form of a patch issued last month that most Drupal websites haven’t yet applied.

According to a post by security researcher Troy Mursch Saturday, at least 350 websites running Drupal, some highly notable such as the San Diego Zoo, the National Labor Relations Board and the Turkish Revenue Administration, have been hacked and are running cryptomining scripts. And that number appears likely to rise rapidly.

The hackers have injected Coinhive script that uses the central processing unit chips of computers visiting an infected website to mine for Monero. That cryptocurrency that has become popular among cryptocriminals because it’s nearly impossible to trace, unlike transactions on better-known cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum.

“This is yet another case of miscreants compromising outdated and vulnerable Drupal installations on a large scale,” Mursch wrote. “If you’re a website operator using Drupal’s content management system, you need to update to the latest available version ASAP.”

The Drupal-focused cryptomining attack detailed by Mursch may not be alone. Security firm Imperva on May 2 detailed another group attacking Drupal installs for cryptomining installations they dubbed a “Kitty campaign” for “Crypto Me0wing Attacks.”

That attack involved the installation of a PHP-based backdoor on Drupal-running servers. Although a specific number on how far that attack had spread wasn’t provided, it could easily be in the thousands.

Picture: ixisit/Flickr