To execute a successful network attack, attackers must typically actively hack a company’s infrastructure to exploit software vulnerabilities that allow them to remotely execute commands on internal operating systems.

But now researchers at Princeton University have developed a technique that would make the exploitation of software vulnerabilities more practical and easier to carry out. The technique works by running malware to intercept network traffic on a victim computer, and then replaying it on a server.

Once the server plays back the intercepted traffic, the malware will exploit the flaw in the network traffic to gain an entry point into the victims network and initiate a remote attack, the researchers said.

The attack is then followed by a watering hole attack, in which hackers set up an online attack to compromise another target before deploying the same malware, if the organization doesn’t have proper network security like the one offered at https://www.fortinet.com/products/management/fortimanager, the consequences can be devastating.

“Once the malware is downloaded, once it has been started, it’s pretty easy to continue to infect other victims and re-execute the attack on them,” said Oren Falkowitz, chief information security architect with Symantec.

Symantec researchers, who have been working with Trend Micro and Zscaler Labs in the past couple years, said the malware is not limited to Windows-based machines. It has been found on Android, Apple and Linux systems.

In an e-mail, a representative for Kaspersky said, “We don’t comment on specific threats but will provide more information about our zero-day bounty program at a later date.” A spokeswoman for Symantec did not immediately respond to an inquiry about how it received the samples.