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D-Link Router Backdoor Vulnerability Allows Full Access To Settings
StealthHunter writes "It turned out that just by setting a browsers user-agent to 'xmlset_roodkcableoj28840ybtide' anyone can remotely bypass all authentication on D-Link routers. It seems that thttpd was modified by Alphanetworks who inserted the backdoor. Unfortunately, vulnerable routers can be easily identified by services like shodanHQ. At least these models may have vulnerable firmware: DIR-100, DI-524, DI-524UP, DI-604S, DI-604UP, DI-604+, TM-G5240."
Are these people too stupid to know that eventually, somebody _will_ analyze their firmware and find this? I think it is time to make them liable for a bit more than the device when things like these get found. Say, 10x the new value of the device to any customer that wants to give it back.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
PDF link, published earlier this year, shows how many manufacturers use a stack with a UPnP vuln that gives root, even from the WAN side:
http://www.defensecode.com/public/DefenseCode_Broadcom_Security_Advisory.pdf
Point is, you probably weren't as safe as you thought you were, even before this new disclosure.
I think a huge problem with consumer-grade wifi routers today is that as manufacturers race to support new models with new wifi standards and new competitive feature sets, older models quickly become abandonware. There's very little guarantee around firmware updates for critical vulnerabilities, and end users are mostly oblivious to being at risk. By the time you pick up that $80 model from the store it's probably borderline EOL already.
And the post points out (in 2010) that if you reverse the string it was "edit by 04882 Joel Backdoor" so it was clearly a backdoor.
The big scandal here is how can a backdoor be known since 2010 and not revealed??!!!
Somebody found it profitable enough to make an effort to stifle the spread of knowledge about the backdoor?
"Profit" can be anything of value, of course.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
How to bury your company's reputation with one password.
D-link's rep was buried long ago.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
The big scandal here is how can a backdoor be known since 2010 and not revealed??!!!
Seriously? That's not a scandal, that's the way the world works. People that LOOK for stuff like that want to keep those exploits to themselves because they want to USE THEM. If you reveal the damn thing, it'll get patched.
Not many people want to do all the work of looking through binaries figuring out obscure shit like this just for fun.
This is NOT a small, obscure problem for users of DLINK routers. Although it does not open up Wifi access or anything like that, having access to the configuration panel of your router is bad news even from inside the network. I can't think of anyway to automatically exploit it via a browser (XSS-style) but a small executable (or trusted Java applet, for instance) could do it.
Additionally, I wonder how many small establishments are offering free wifi using DLINK equipment. Those networks are now vulnerable.
If I was a bad(er) guy, the first thing I would change would be the DNS settings. Forcing all computers behind the router to use a DNS I control opens up all sorts of interesting ways to mess with people.
sheep.horse - does not contain information on sheep or horses.
Read it and weep:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-spy-agencies-mounted-231-offensive-cyber-operations-in-2011-documents-show/2013/08/30/d090a6ae-119e-11e3-b4cb-fd7ce041d814_story_1.html
"Much more often, an implant is coded entirely in software by an NSA group called Tailored Access Operations (TAO). As its name suggests, TAO builds attack tools that are custom-fitted to their targets. "
"Tailored Access Operations has software templates to break into common brands and models of “routers, switches and firewalls from multiple product vendor lines,” according to one document describing its work."
So on the one hand they're supposed to defend US networks from attack, while on the other hand they have detailed knowledge of these backdoors and use them for their own use while keeping them secret.
So yes, the NSA did have a hand in it, at the minimum it kept it secret while exploiting it.
It might have nothing to do with anyone called Joel. When I was far younger and quite bored, I graffiti'd "Patrick Tang was here" (in a place where a Patrick Tang had been). Patrick Tang had nothing to do with the use of his name, but when he discovered it, he went to considerable effort to obscure it, believing he would likely be blamed.
s this the guy behind it? http://www.joesdata.com/executive/Joel_Liu_421313008.html Assuming good will, it seems like debugging code left in the final firmware release.
Regardless of how strong the evidence may be, uniquely identifying someone on the internet is dangerous and may even expose you to a slander/libel/defamation case. You may recall not long ago the witch hunt on reddit for the Boston Bomber. Over a dozen 'suspects' were named and shamed on the forums, none of whom turned out to be the actual person. Those people's lives crumbled into dust after, and police had to devote valuable resources at the time to protecting those individuals from vigilantes. Don't go the extra step of naming someone -- no matter how confident you are, the odds are very high that you're wrong. I know you think you're being edgy, smart, whatever and showing off your google-fu here, but you've actually rather accomplished the reverse -- you've demonstrated a reckless abandon and an inability to consider the consequences of your actions, or at least favoring momentary glory and recognition at the expense of another. Neither scores high marks in internet ethics.
On the internet, a loaded finger is a bigger threat than a loaded gun.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
As a software engineer who has worked on some larger projects, I can tell you that you are in fantasy land if you think that every line of code can be vetted without spending a small fortune on code review. Those costs might be justifiable for a project like a space shuttle guidance system, where the cost of failure is billions of dollars and multiple lives, but nobody is going to shell out that kind of budget for a sub $100 consumer router.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!