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The Internet of Compromised Things
An anonymous reader writes: Jeff Atwood has a post about a security threat that's becoming more prevalent every day: spreading malware through a compromised router. "Router malware is the ultimate man-in-the-middle attack. For all meaningful traffic sent through a compromised router that isn't HTTPS encrypted, it is 100% game over." He links to a thorough technical analysis of how even HTTPS encrypted traffic can be subverted. Atwood provides a list of suggestions for keeping your router safe that probably won't be any surprise to people reading this site, and he further recommends only browsing on an unknown router if encryption is available. What I'm curious about are the long-term implications — is there a way forward to re-establish trust in our router infrastructure? What can the open source community do to speed this along?
The people who designed the internet had the right idea: Dumb network, intelligent edge. Perimeter security and trusted networks are dead ends. Communication is from endpoint to endpoint. The network shouldn't even matter. You might be running IP over avian carriers if that's what you need to do to get a connection. But if you need to trust the network between the endpoints, you're doing it wrong. Even if you could trust your own router, do you trust the ten or more routers behind it? Ubiquitous encryption and authentication with IPSec is possible with DNSSEC supplying the keys.