Millions of Home Routers Will Soon Be Hacked

Unknown

I saw this news article this morning.· It may already be available to those who know about it.· Stay protected.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Router-Exploit-Linksys-WRT54G,news-7547.html

...a researcher from Maryland-based security consultancy Seismic plans to release a software tool that will hack into millions of routers used on home networks. The tool is expected to be made available during the upcoming Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, and will have the ability to hack into routers manufactured by Linksys, Dell, Verizon (Fios, DSL) and more.

Apparently the tool uses a variation on a technique known as "DNS rebinding." It takes advantage of an age-old problem with the DNS system where websites balance traffic by offloading visitors to additional IP addresses. "There have been plenty of patches over the years, but this still hasn't really been fixed," said Craig Heffner, the researcher behind the hacking tool.

WBA Consulting

I don't understand how they define "hacking the router" since all my router's settings are locked in by a password. Do they just mean it gives the hacker access to your internal network via the router and your hacked browser? I hate articles written this way because while it is meant to be informative, I believe the risk is much lower than the article presumes because it lacks technical detail. Maybe after Black Hat, we'll know more.

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Andrew Williams
WBA Consulting
PowerTwig Dual Output Power Supply Module
My Prop projects: Reverse Geo-Cache Box, Custom Metronome, Micro Plunge Logger

Unknown

Apparently Verizon may be taking it seriously because their passwords for the routers have always been "password" or "admin".· They have reset them to the router's serial number.

LoopyByteloose

Hmmm, sounds a lot like someone is trying to shake the money tree with fear and loathing. Reminds me of the Y2K nonsense. But one should really get their passwords in order and it is best to not use an HTML page to configure your router.· Those are the big TWO of no-no's.

I am two routers - a DLink that I am now using and since it has NO wifi I feel it is quite secure. It has HTML configuration, but I am sure it cannot be reached from over the net.

The other is an Asus WL-500·with Wifi, but to assure complete control of that I have burned a Linux version intto it that is much better than the manufacturer's firmware. In that way, I can have wifi reach the internet, but by-pass all my wired service. If someone is using wifi at my home, they can simply contact me via Skype, email, or whatever - they have no entry into my local distribution.

There is an awful lot that one can do with Linux on the right router. Take a look at Oleg's (the Russian) firmware.

Oleg's wonderful·Linux router ---> http://oleg.wl500g.info/

You can get very deep into this, but that's the fun of it. You buy a $60 router and change it into an $1000 one.

The Linksys routers are also possible to adapt to Linux.

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Ain't gadetry a wonderful thing?

aka G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan

Post Edited (Loopy Byteloose) : 7/23/2010 12:32:39 PM GMT

AJM

From what I hear, there will be bigger security issues being addressed at black hat

LoopyByteloose

DNS rebinding.... need to look more into that. But at least with a Linux firmware router, one can get updates quickly as improvements evolve. Also, more than a team of in-house software engineers are looking at how to make the software secure.

Nonetheless, I am not sure it is foremost a 'router problem' as a browser problem that will get resolved by not using the browser to configure your router. It appears to first require hijacking the browser to locate the HTML to change the router's settings. That means that if you don't use HTML pages to configure your router, the attack fails (Right?)· Going to a Linux firmware and router configuration by SSH (Secure Shell, rather than the older Telnet) could stall the whole process.· Better browser security of certain features can also thwart attacks.

Here is a bit of background poop.

http://crypto.stanford.edu/dns/dns-rebinding.pdf

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Ain't gadetry a wonderful thing?

aka G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan

Post Edited (Loopy Byteloose) : 7/23/2010 1:10:52 PM GMT

icepuck

revision3.com/hak5
look for shows #401 The WiFi pineapple & #403.

If that doesn't do it for ya then try building one from old pc parts.
www.untangle.com/
revision3.com/hak5/building-a-high-performance-home-router
-dan

Jorge P

Why would this heffner guy and the company he works for blatently broadcast that they are going to commit a federal offence by hacking millions of peoples private property, thats a law suit and jail sentance waiting to happen.

My router was just acting up the other night at about 2am, fortunately I have 2 routers and a few firewalls setup excluding 2 software firewalsl on my PC's.

Almost any security measure out there is not intended to protect anyone, it is only intended to deture a potential threat, as any security method can be hacked over time. And hacking isn't even the proper term to call it, it should be called cracking due to the fact they are breaking something. Hacking is what we all do with our micro's to get things to work, understand them better and write better code.

Note, if you want to ensure the streangth of your systems passwords, google/bing this phrase "John the Ripper" & "Openwall" and read the instruction and Documentation. As a rule of thumb, make sure your passwords are atleast 8 charactors long, and consist of random numbers letters and symbols that do not contain words in any lnaguage dictionary. However, if you have a password cracker and let it run long enough, which can take weeks for home PC's, it will crack it eventualy.

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