Critical vulnerabilities in numerous ASUS routers | Hacker News Reader

Critical vulnerabilities in numerous ASUS routers

h-online.com

61 pointsKilo-byte24 comments

If you haven't already, go replace your firmware with OpenWRT:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/start#asus

It's a much better UI experience, performs better, and with better stability than most OEM firmwares, and it's open source so you can inspect/recompile the code as needed to satiate your security concerns, install arbitrary software, etc.

This is literally the first thing I do with every router I pull out of the box.

Unfortunately, ASUS's devices tend to use the Broadcom 47xx series chipsets in general, which tend to be not as well supported as newer chipset like the Atheros 7k and 9k variants, which are in most of the recommended devices these days.

Tomato is great as well, and is very user friendly in my experience (on my personal RT-N16, can't speak to professional use).

http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Tomato_Firmware/Supported_Devic...

Looks like the openwrt.com https cert expired yesterday! Damn!

I wish there was an OpenWRT firmware for my Billion 7800N. Apart from the pretty naff firmware it's an excellent router. Just wish it had OpenVPN support :\

OpenWRT is quite capable and is easy to use and configure. I agree with zdw. It's a good choice.

The first vulnerability listed isn't a huge deal; it only applies when AiCloud is activated, which I suspect most people don't.

On the other hand, the second vulnerability listed--that UPnP is available on the @#%( WAN port--should have people incredibly upset.

UPnP on a the WAN is actually VERY common. There are at least 30 million devices out there that have publicly exposed UPnP, see http://www.shodanhq.com/search?q=port%3A1900

For comparison, there are more public UPnP services than there are HTTPS.

And as a side-note, there are also more Telnet servers than HTTPS servers by a narrow margin.

Given the recent NSA revelations, and the various posts discussing software and hardware backdoors, this vulnerability sent me into full-blown paranoia mode.

You can't trust web service providers, you can't trust your ISP, you can't trust your gov't, you can't trust hardware providers. Jesus H. Christ, is there anything left to trust?

I'm starting to feel that by the simple act of connecting a device to the Internet I'm already compromised which makes me feel dirty.

I guess Richard Stallman isn't so crazy after all for demanding open source hardware (well, he's actually demanding 'free' hardware). I know that DD-WRT is an open source router firmware, but I'm not sure whether high-end routers support it.

>You can't trust web service providers, you can't trust your ISP, you can't trust your gov't, you can't trust hardware providers.

You forgot your compilers: http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html

I've got TomatoUSB on my Asus router. EXCEPTIONALLY powerful and stable firmware with great wireless coverage. This past weekend, pardon my humblebrag, I was able to segregate my network into separate VLANs for the home LAN, guest wireless, and a DMZ for my servers, with appropriate access ACLs (via iptables) for each. I feel very secure with this firmware, far moreso than with the Asus stock one that's for sure!

I'd recommend http://tomato.groov.pl/ running it on a RT-N66U, it's brilliant

Thinking about doing something similar, would you care to do a writeup? I'm deeply scared of iptables.

I second Tomato. It has done me no wrong on my 4+ year old AP

Tomato is excellent.

I'll note that there is https://code.google.com/p/rt-n56u/ as well, though I know nothing about except what I read there.

I also heard that earlier ASUS routers had awful UIs and that they licensed Tomato from Polarcloud ... but I see no evidence of that (yet).

There are vulnerabilities and weaknesses in everything. Your operating system, your apartment's gate lock, your car's firmware. If you worry about things that are outside of your control you'll never stop worrying. Focus on what you have control of. Put an open source firmware on your router.

This kind of consumer NAT boxes have a history of being like swiss cheese. Only use them in bridge mode!

Oh neat, I've got one of these!

But I've got DD-WRT on there, so I'm... good to go?

uPNP has been a no-go security wise for a while now though, hasn't it?

I have RT-N12, it's not on the list. Am I safe, is there some kind of test that would indicate if I'm vulnerable?

toastman builds have been solid for me: http://www.4shared.com/dir/v1BuINP3/Toastman_Builds.html

also great: http://tomato.groov.pl/download/

Why wouldn't these have the same vulnerability? Aren't they just modified versions of the Asus firmware?

I don't believe so. Both DD-WRT and Tomato are essentially Linux builds (2.6.xx kernel) with drivers for the router's hardware. They are fairly close in features with some people preferring the Tomato UI to DD-WRT.

OpenBSD on either Soekris or ALIX and you are done.

This really should be the top comment.

Thanks for this post. I am installing ddwrt today!

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