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Millions of Home Routers Are Hackable
Julie188 writes "Craig Heffner, a researcher with Maryland-based security consultancy Seismic, plans to release a software tool at the Black Hat conference later this month that he says could be used on about half the existing models of home routers, including most Linksys, Dell, and Verizon FiOS or DSL versions. The tool apparently exploits the routers through DNS rebinding. While this technique has been discussed for 15 years or more, Heffner says, 'It just hasn't been put together like this before.'" Notebooks.com has a list of routers tested and some advice on securing vulnerable routers.
The tool apparently exploits the routers through DNS rebinding. Wjhile this technique has been discussed for 15 years or more, Heffner says 'It just hasn't been put together like this before.'"
Ha Ha! I changed my default username to "adjminstrator" and password to "passjword"! Good luck hjackers!
The Forbes article has a Google spreadsheet of the routers.
At one point, just out of morbid curiosity, I cranked up a copy of OpenVAS(the OSS fork of nessus) and told it to just hit everything on my home network with all "safe" tests(the program offers the option of either including or excluding tests that are likely to crash/DOS the target, rather than simply confirm/deny the presence of a vulnerability).
When the run was finished, all the real computers in the house had passed, with the exception of a few informational messages(Hey! this computer is running an SSH server, did you do that or should you be freaking out right now?). On the other hand, I had to physically reset over half of the assorted little-bitty-embedded-plastic-boxes-of-various-network-functions to get them working again.
And that was with the "safe" tests.
Based on the version and vulnerability information being reported(for devices that I do, in fact, update vendor firmwares on, when those are available) the state of consumer embedded devices is absolutely fucking pathetic. Blatantly outdated and known-vulnerable services listening merrily away in the latest vendor firmwares for products less than a year old...
That would actually probably help a lot(though not as much as a real password).
In any exploitation scenario where the router login page isn't simply sitting on the WAN side, happily accepting all comers to try their luck, the hypothetical attacker would probably use a list of default username/password pairs for common router brands, or a list of known exploits for common router models.
Even the most trivial password change would save you entirely from the former, and no password change available would save you from the latter. A password brute-force attack system, written in javascript and injected via the method described, is conceivable; but it would only have until you close the browser window, and it would be subject to any rate-limiting imposed by the router's login page or the browser's JS engine, so it would probably be pretty tepid.
Obviously, if you are going to change your password, change it right; but the difference between default password and bad password is likely a good deal greater than the difference between bad password and good password, when it comes to crackability...
Here's a direct link to the spreadsheet of routers, without the IFRAME so it's easier to read: https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Aupu_01ythaUdGZINXQ5Vi16X3hXb3VPYkszNXM0YXc&hl=en&output=html&widget=true
Here ya go:
Vendor Model H/W Version F/W Version Successful
ActionTec MI424-WR Rev. C 4.0.16.1.56.0.10.11.6 YES
ActionTec MI424-WR Rev. D 4.0.16.1.56.0.10.11.6 YES
ActionTec GT704-WG N/A 3.20.3.3.5.0.9.2.9 YES
ActionTec GT701-WG E 3.60.2.0.6.3 YES
Asus WL-520gU N/A N/A YES
Belkin F5D7230-4 2000 4.05.03 YES
Belkin F5D7230-4 6000 N/A NO
Belkin F5D7234-4 N/A 5.00.12 NO
Belkin F5D8233-4v3 3000 3.01.10 NO
Belkin F5D6231-4 1 2.00.002 NO
D-Link DI-524 C1 3.23 NO
D-Link DI-624 N/A 2.50DDM NO
D-Link DIR-628 A2 1.22NA NO
D-Link DIR-320 A1 1 NO
D-Link DIR-655 A1 1.30EA NO
DD-WRT N/A N/A v24 YES
Dell TrueMobile 2300 N/A 5.1.1.6 YES
Linksys BEFW11S4 1 1.37.2 YES
Linksys BEFSR41 4.3 2.00.02 YES
Linksys WRT54G3G-ST N/A N/A YES
Linksys WRT54G2 N/A N/A NO
Linksys WRT160N 1.1 1.02.2 YES
Linksys WRT54G 3 3.03.9 YES
Linksys WRT54G 5 1.00.4 NO
Linksys WRT54GL N/A N/A YES
Netgear WGR614 9 N/A NO
Netgear WNR834B 2 2.1.13_2.1.13NA NO
OpenWRT N/A N/A Kamikaze r16206 YES
PFSense N/A N/A 1.2.3-RC3 YES
Thomson ST585 6sl 6.2.2.29.2 YES
From the article:
"One comfort for users may be that Heffner's method still requires the attacker to compromise the victim's router after gaining access to his or her network."
So, this is a problem if you've left your router with its default admin password, or there's a vulnerability in the firmware which can be exploited. The same as every other possible exploit of consumer^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^hall hardware.
Who published this article? Oh, hey kdawson. Glad to see you're still on form. Seriously, let me filter this shit out of the RSS feed.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Ha Ha! I changed my default username to "adjminstrator" and password to "passjword"! Good luck hjackers!
Wouldn't stop them if they're Swedish!
And yes, I'm an insensitive Cljod!
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Apparently p0rn sites are lower risk than normal sites :P