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Cisco Products Have Backdoors

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the two-scoops-of-creepy dept.

Cbs228 writes "A Cisco Security Advisory released yesterday admits that "A default username/password pair is present in all releases of the Wireless LAN Solution Engine (WLSE) and Hosting Solution Engine (HSE) software. A user who logs in using this username has complete control of the device. This username cannot be disabled." Can we really trust closed-source vendors, such as Cisco, to develop secure products that are free of backdoors?"

1 of 555 comments (clear)

  1. The answer is no. by rice_burners_suck · · Score: 0, Troll
    Can we really trust closed- source vendors, such as Cisco, to develop secure products that are free of backdoors?

    The answer is NO. We simply cannot trust closed-source vendors of any kind.

    Think of it this way: Any kind of physical machine that you can get can be taken apart and inspected. But when it comes to software, which has grown in the last decades to very large and complex systems, doing so without the source is extremely difficult and wouldn't give any benefit because the results could be impossible to understand.

    Therefore, RMS is absolutely right in this respect, no matter how wacko some people think he is.