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Intentional Backdoor In Consumer Routers Found
New submitter janoc (699997) writes about a backdoor that was fixed (only not). "Eloi Vanderbeken from Synacktiv has identified an intentional backdoor in a module by Sercomm used by major router manufacturers (Cisco, Linksys, Netgear, etc.). The backdoor was ostensibly fixed — by obfuscating it and making it harder to access. The original report (PDF). And yeah, there is an exploit available ..."
Rather than actually closing the backdoor, they just altered it so that the service was not enabled until you knocked the portal with a specially crafted Ethernet packet. Quoting Ars Technica: "The nature of the change, which leverages the same code as was used in the old firmware to provide administrative access over the concealed port, suggests that the backdoor is an intentional feature of the firmware ... Because of the format of the packets—raw Ethernet packets, not Internet Protocol packets—they would need to be sent from within the local wireless LAN, or from the Internet service provider’s equipment. But they could be sent out from an ISP as a broadcast, essentially re-opening the backdoor on any customer’s router that had been patched."
Should be installing DD-WRT
...US tech firms blame Snowden for failing confidence in the safety of using US tech companies: The 'Snowden Effect' Is Crushing US Tech Firms In China
Pot, meet Kettle.
. . . the spooks used to have to break into your home to plant bugging devices.
Now, you bring the bugging devices home as consumer appliances, and install then them yourself for the spooks.
This saves them a lot of effort. Cost effective.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I say tomato..
Just load OpenWRT or some other open source firmware, problem solved.
What do you mean there isn't a port for your hardware? Why did you buy it in the first place? Throw it away (or donate it to someone who can do the port) and buy something that has been ported.
NEVER buy hardware without a open source port at least in progress.. You have been warned!
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Rather than actually closing the backdoor, they just altered it so that the service was not enabled until you knocked the portal with a specially crafted Ethernet packet.
Well, somebody paid good money for that backdoor. If Sercomm closed it, they'd have to issue a refund.
I'm not surprised that there is a backdoor ('Hey guys! Should we add a remote management feature that will automagically Just Work with ISPs 'setup disks' and/or remote troubleshooting systems even if the clueless user has forgotten their password, or would that be too scary?' is not a difficult question, especially given how many of these things are sold to ISPs in bulk and not to end users, especially the lousy combined router/modem devices), I am a trifle surprised that it's so slapped-together looking.
It's not exactly a secret that ISPs and providers of combination internet/TV/voice services tend to view customer-controlled equipment as something between a painful support headache and the blasphemous spawn of an unnatural coupling between internet piracy and absolute evil. Hence their enthusiasm for pushing their pet 'home gateway'/'set top box'/etc. with greater or lesser force, and the existence of standards like TR-069 ('CPE WAN Management Protocol') and organizations like the 'Home Gateway Initiative' that seek to standardize a nice, tame, appliance that can be used to sell services to consumers without confusing their little brains or letting them meddle.
That's what surprises me about seeing a comparatively dodgy-looking; but vendor/OEM provided, back door not only present but deliberately preserved even after being discovered, and sufficiently badly as to be rediscovered. There are remote management systems that, by design, are not under the control of the user, present for the convenience of the operator; but those are in the 'bydesign, wontfix' bucket. There are also malicious backdoors; but if this is one the party inserting it was far too arrogant for their own good. There are probably also legacy backdoors, used by some specific ISPs or the like; but those would presumably show up in their hardware, since Sercomm doesn't control enough of the market to assure that all customer-supplied devices will have the backdoor; but they do control enough that a single ISP's backdoor would be splashed all over the place.
Who is the expected user here, and what did they gain by trying to hold on to an existing backdoor so shoddily as to have it detected again?
In the pdf of his presentation he mentions that there are 24 router models confirmed vulnerable spanning Cisco, Linksys, NetGear, and Diamond. I have yet to spot the actual list of vulnerable routers, though.
He also elaborates on how a technically skilled person can figure out if any particular router is vulnerable.
The link to the list of vulnerabilities is found in the pdf. Here's a copy/pasted list of the ones known so far.
BEGIN COPIED TEXT:
Backdoor LISTENING ON THE INTERNET confirmed in :
Linksys WAG120N (@p_w999) ;) (issue 49)
Netgear DG834B V5.01.14 (@domainzero)
Netgear DGN2000 1.1.1, 1.1.11.0, 1.3.10.0, 1.3.11.0, 1.3.12.0 (issue 44)
Netgear WPNT834 (issue 79)
OpenWAG200 maybe a little bit TOO open
Backdoor confirmed in:
Cisco RVS4000 fwv 2.0.3.2 (issue 57)
Cisco WAP4410N (issue 11)
Cisco WRVS4400N
Cisco WRVS4400N (issue 36)
Diamond DSL642WLG / SerComm IP806Gx v2 TI (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6998682)
LevelOne WBR3460B (http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/101/507219/30/0/threaded)
Linksys RVS4000 Firmware V1.3.3.5 (issue 55)
Linksys WAG120N (issue 58)
Linksys WAG160n v1 and v2 (@xxchinasaurxx @saltspork)
Linksys WAG200G
Linksys WAG320N (http://zaufanatrzeciastrona.pl/post/smieszna-tylna-furtka-w-ruterach-linksysa-i-prawdopodobnie-netgeara/)
Linksys WAG54G2 (@_xistence)
Linksys WAG54GS (@henkka7)
Linksys WRT350N v2 fw 2.00.19 (issue 39)
Linksys WRT300N fw 2.00.17 (issue 34)
Netgear DG834[â..., GB, N, PN, GT] version 5 (issue 19 & issue 25 & issue 62 & jd & Burn2 Dev)
Netgear DGN1000 (don't know if there is a difference with the others N150 ones... issue 27)
Netgear DGN1000[B] N150 (issue 3)
Netgear DGN2000B (issue 26)
Netgear DGN3500 (issue 13)
Netgear DGND3300 (issue 56)
Netgear DGND3300Bv2 fwv 2.1.00.53_1.00.53GR (issue 59)
Netgear DM111Pv2 (@eguaj)
Netgear JNR3210 (issue 37)
Backdoor may be present in:
all SerComm manufactured devices (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6998258) :END COPIED TEXT
Linksys WAG160N (http://zaufanatrzeciastrona.pl/post/smieszna-tylna-furtka-w-ruterach-linksysa-i-prawdopodobnie-netgeara/)
Netgear DG934 probability: probability: 99.99% (http://codeinsecurity.wordpress.com/category/reverse-engineering/)
Netgear WG602, WGR614 (v3 doesn't work, maybe others...) (http://zaufanatrzeciastrona.pl/post/smieszna-tylna-furtka-w-ruterach-linksysa-i-prawdopodobnie-netgeara/)
Z
Yes, I cannot possibly fathom why anyone would dislike having a backdoor in their router unless they were pirating material from a well-known public tracker. Brilliant deduction.
Why the fuck would anybody mod this nonsense up? What is wrong with you people?
You have to be on the LAN... DOCSIS tends to be pretty picky and I doubt raw Ethernet would be passed (been a while since I looked at the spec though). Sounds like its part of some kind of firmware upgrade type feature to me.
As linked in TFA: Have a link to a list of devices (Not necessarily complete).
Wouldn't it be a simple "Fix" to set up port forwarding to redirect traffic directed to port 32768 to a "dead" address. Then the port would already be allocated, and when the "Knock" arrives, the port is already in use, and data goes nowhere.
I predict we will see more of that. Congratulations to the finder! Maybe we should start to offer "public safety" bounties to people that find these acts of sabotage.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
No, it just means that if you have one of these devices, then you are fucked.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The Chinese want their access too, and look what they did with the US solar industry (by hacking and swiping masks, then making panels cheaper than rare earth cost to shutter companies via predatory trade practices.)
The NSA, I'm not worried about. They don't want me out of a job. China, definitely.
The 2wire/pace (3600,3800,etc) all have TCP port 3479 open to the internet.This is what you are forced to use if you have AT&T U-verse. There is no way to block it and AT&T says its for "updates and trouble shooting".
http://forums.att.com/t5/forum...
I wonder what great backdoors are in these gateways?
I have to return some videotapes...
What Snowden was turn a suspicion into knowledge. That is a big deal. (Hal Berghel pointed this out first).
Worrying about Chinese intelligence being involved because the product is from Taiwan is like worrying that North Korea is spying on you through Samsung products, or Mossad has added miniature tracking devices to gasoline imported from the Middle East.
For enterprises, such a vulnerability could be catastrophic and would require immediate remediation regardless of budget considerations. Or more accurately, many enterprises would be forced to choose between preserving their network security and preserving their operating capital. The cost to commerce for this could be devastating if this exploit is not confined to consumer-grade equipment.
TFA only mentions consumer grade routers. Please let that be the extent of this . . .
There are coders out there who might care, look, and warn you *IF* it's open source. If not, you'll just wonder why your friends always snicker and call you 'spammy'.
So, you login to your router via http instead of https?
DD-WRT uses matrixssl to provide SSL/TLS when using HTTPS, not OpenSSL. As such it is not vulnerable.
I don't see Apple in that list. However, that doesn't mean it's certainly not impacted. Does anyone have any guess about this?
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
because when the knock arrives, the first who is in charge is hardware, afterwards firmware, and than goes user setup
If it truly bothers me, I can buy a compatible cable or DSL modem
I bought my own cable modem after TWC increased the monthly charge for the modem lease and I realized that if I bought my own it would pay for itself in only a year.
The configuration page for the modem has two buttons. One resets the modem. The other disables a DHCP feature which is only in effect when the modem isn't connected to the cable company's network, as the only reason for the feature is to allow you to view the modem's status pages. (Normally the device behind the modem gets its address via DHCP, and so without a cable connection, you wouldn't get an address and so you'd be unable to access the status pages.) There's literally nothing else the modem does that is under my control. I can't even update the firmware -- any firmware updates have to come over the cable network.
Apparently this is what the DOCSIS standards require. I may own the device, but the cable company determines how it operates, since they own the network.
The only good side of this is that it really doesn't matter as long as your modem isn't also your firewall. Even if your ISP couldn't spy on you by hacking your modem, they could still spy on you from the next hop towards the internet which is also under their control. It only becomes interesting if they can hack a device with access to your LAN, which is the case if your modem is also your router, which is a strong argument for why it shouldn't be.
The really shocking thing about this story is that the backdoor was (and still is) so unprotected. You expect that your ISP can snoop on your internet traffic, but when anyone anywhere on the internet can, that's a serious vulnerability. From the sound of it, the fix apparently closes the backdoor only until it is explicitly opened by the ISP, at which point it is once again available to anyone anywhere on the internet. How can people be this incompetent?
You are either ignorant or a liar. (Maybe a paid-for liar?). Just read this: https://plus.google.com/+Theod...
That is a few more people than "nobody". The flaw is that the whole design does not allow verification that it is non-compromised. The claim that including its bits in JTAG would be a security risk is completely bogus, as an attacker with access to the JTAG pins can do whatever they like already. With those bits in JTAG, it would be relatively easy to verify the analog-side is actually analog and is actually what feeds the whitener. That possibility was intentionally sabotaged, and the _only_ good reason for that is that they want to be able to compromise the CPRNG in select batches and make detection of that very hard. And no, there is no software access to those JTAG pins and yes, the hardware to query the internal CPRNG state and analog bit stream must be in place to test the CPU. That means they are switching this access explicitly off after they have verified the hardware works. So not only is this a compromised architecture and design, it is also more effort than doing it right. IT does not get more obvious than this.
Your link, BTW, is worthless. It does not go into the needed level of detail. The contrast with what you get for the VIA C3 generator (e.g.), is quite telling: http://www.cryptography.com/pu.... And VIA has a non-compromised design as they do not desperately try to hide what the analog random source spits out.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Your priorities are 100% backwards. Let me walk you through why this is so dangerous.
- The NSA works at for the executive branch
- Therefore one must assume, from statements made and logic, that intelligence gathered are passed on to their bosses.
- Politicians have only 2 priorities in life: To be (re-)elected, and power. All your other piddling concerns are insignificant compared to those.
- Therefore, the most interesting thing to a politician is anyone who stands in their way from their re-election or in gaining more power.
- If left to their own devices, politicians would use the NSA on political opponents and people who stand in their way (like Joe Nacchio former CEO of Qwest). The fact they are doing these shady things would of course be classified because of "national security".
- These people become targets, their pasts are combed through, their reputations and/or lives destroyed.
- In place of the people that were destroyed, the politician will allow a yes-man to operate that are obedient to them.
Wake up! Your freedom is at stake! It damn well DOES affect you! We all whine about how our representatives suck - now we know why!
If you want to live in such a monarchy, at least have the decency to vote on it, rather than sticking your head in the sand and pretending not to see it.
I'm kinda glad I am NOT living in your country. Laws here specifically state that he must not.
I still change the lock as one of the first actions when I move into a new apartment.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.