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FCC Clarifies: It's Legal To Hack Your Router (betanews.com)

Posted by timothy on from the know-your-place-citizen dept.

Mark Wilson writes with an update to an earlier report that the wording of new FCC regulations could mean that it would be illegal to modfiy the software running on wireless routers by installing alternative firmwares. Instead, The commission has now acknowledged that there was more than a little confusion from people who believed that manufacturers would be encouraged to prevent router modifications. The FCC wants to make it clear that most router hacking is fine and will remain fine. With a few exceptions, that is. In a blog post entitled Clearing the Air on Wi-Fi Software Updates, Julius Knapp from the FCC tries to clear up any misunderstandings that may exist.

6 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Does this really change anything? by hidden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sure. I'm glad to know what the intention of the rule is, but isn't it still likely that the easiest way for manufacturers to comply will be total lockdown?

    1. Re:Does this really change anything? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Informative

      And the easiest way for users to give it the finger is not to buy that broken boxes and instead return to what we did in the 90s, using old computers as routers.

      It's not like you can't build computers that have similar power consumption levels as those routers, with the added bonus that you can actually remove all the parts you don't need that only pose a security risk by their mere existence.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Does this really change anything? by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There is no reason for an extra OS, because any additional microcontroller will only be managing the radio, and there is no reason to use an OS for that; you can just program the firmware to run directly.

      All they really have to do though is compile the max gain into the existing firmware instead of letting the OS set it on boot. They have to cut/paste a couple lines from one .h file to another. Horrors. The rules on the max output wattage don't change very often; historically, I don't think it has ever been increased. The total net benefit of that being configurable has been zilch.

      People handwaving about things getting "locked down" are a bit breathless. There is no reason companies are going to spend extra money on engineering hours to lock down stuff other than the radio gain and modulation settings.

      The router stuff isn't being prevented or restricted in any way, those are simply the devices where some models were not following the rules. Basically, they moved too much of the radio init code into software out of laziness. The radio is a hardware radio, though, not software; so we're just talking about moving OS driver code into firmware, and all that gets moved is the init. There is no way they're going to save money by trying to "lock down" the OS, which is not really doable anyways.

      Remember, software defined radio is more expensive than hardware radios, because of the processing requirements. So the radios were already all hardware. That is why the FCC engineers are a bit surprised and disappointed in the public and the doomsday speculation.

    3. Re:Does this really change anything? by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      People handwaving about things getting "locked down" are a bit breathless. There is no reason companies are going to spend extra money on engineering hours to lock down stuff other than the radio gain and modulation settings.

      You're half right. Companies are not going to spend extra engineering hours on this stuff. So rather than going through and locking down specifics they'll likely just disable write and JTAG interfaces after shipping and you get a read-only device for your pleasure.

      Oh but what about official firmware updates you ask?
      I've yet to own a device that's ever received one.

  2. No one with a clue thought it would be illegal ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No one with a clue thought it would be illegal to hack your router. There might have been a few idiots spouting that but there are always idiots spouting on the Web. The issue is that certain changes - increasing your transmission power - ARE illegal and have long been illegal. The FCC is looking at putting out rules to prevent that from being possible, or at least make it much more difficult. The easiest way to implement those rules for manufacturers is to prevent the router from running anything other than the default firmware. The FCC made some changes to their wording which may or may not reduce that likelihood a bit. But the changes are largely cosmetic and the possibility of manufactures making changes which prevents users from changing their firmware is still a real concern. It may not be illegal but if you can't do it, does that really matter?

  3. Vint Cerf knew it would be illegal ... by davecb · · Score: 3, Informative

    He and Dave Taht wrote the reply to the former rulemaking proposal, which *specifically* asked how the vendor would prevent purchasers from flashing it with DD-WRT. Please see the IETF submission at http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comme...

    --
    davecb@spamcop.net