Share this story Home routers from 10 manufacturers, including Linksys, DLink, and Belkin, can be turned into covert listening posts that allow the Central Intelligence Agency to monitor and manipulate incoming and outgoing traffic and infect connected devices. That's according to secret documents posted Thursday by WikiLeaks., as the implant is code-named, can be especially effective against targets using some D-Link-made DIR-130 and Linksys-manufactured WRT300N models because they can be. An can extract their passwords as long as a default feature known as universal plug and play remains on. Routers that are protected by a default or easily-guessed administrative password are, of course, trivial to infect. In all, documents say CherryBlossom runs on 25 router models, although it's likely modifications would allow the implant to run on at least 100 more. WikiLeaks The describes a Linux-based operating system that can run on a broad range of routers. Once installed, CherryBlossom turns the device into a 'FlyTrap' that beacons a CIA-controlled server known as a 'CherryTree.'
The beacon includes device status and security information that the CherryTree logs to a database. In response, the CherryTree sends the infected device a 'Mission' consisting of specific tasks tailored to the target. CIA operators can use a 'CherryWeb' browser-based user interface to view Flytrap status and security information, plan new missions, view mission-related data, and perform system administration tasks. Missions can target connected users based on IPs, e-mail addresses, MAC addresses, chat user names, and VoIP numbers.
Mission tasks can include copying all or only some of the traffic; copying e-mail addresses, chat user names, and VoIP numbers; invoking a feature known as 'Windex,' which redirects a user's browser that attempts to perform a drive-by malware attack; establishing a virtual private network connection that gives access to the local area network; and the proxying of all network connections. Further ReadingIn many respects, CherryBlossom isn't much different from and other types of that have infected hundreds of thousands of devices over the past few years.
What sets the CIA implant apart the most is its full suite of features, including its user interface, command-server support, and a long list of mission tasks. Also significant: the documents date back to 2007, when router hacking was less developed than it is now. CherryBlossom is the latest release in WikiLeaks Vault7 series, which the site purports was made possible when the 'CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal.' CIA officials have declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the documents, but based on the number of pages and unique details exposed in the series, there is broad consensus among researchers that the documents are actual CIA materials.
What's more, researchers from security firm Symantec have that has been penetrating governments and private industries around the world for years. While WikiLeaks said Vault7 was intended to 'initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation, and democratic control of cyberweapons,' little or nothing published to date has shown the CIA running afoul of its legal mandate. Further ReadingLike the other Vault7 releases, Thursday's installment doesn't include the source code or binaries that would allow other hacker groups to appropriate the CIA's router-hijacking capabilities. That makes the leaks significantly less damaging than those by the Shadow Brokers, the name used by a still-unknown group that has been published advanced hacking tools developed by and later stolen from the National Security Agency. April's resulted in the that infected an. Thursday's Vault7 release does, however, provide so-called indicators of compromise that targets can use to determine if they were hacked.
As pointed out by a researcher who tweets under the handle Xorz, it may allow people to identify CIA-controlled CherryTree servers, since they all seem to. A general defense more technically inclined users can take against router-based malware that monitors and tampers with Internet traffic is to put the router in question into passive mode and connect it to network hub and a trusted router. This allows the person to see all traffic going into and out of the network. Promoted Comments.
So, presumably, those of us running custom router firmware (tomato, dd-wrt) don't need to worry? Or should I turn UPNP off anyway? You should always disable UPnP on any router, IMO, unless you have a very good reason not to do so. Generally speaking, anything that allows a device to automatically adjust settings is a horrible security vulnerability waiting to happen. With how critical a router is to overall security of a network, it's a no-brainer to kill as much as possible. The only reason to have UPnP at all is so novices can use advanced features such as routing external traffic to a specific device without the need to tinker in the settings.
If you're capable of installing custom firmware on the device, you're more than capable to set those things up yourself. The CIA's focus is external intelligence. The 4th Amendment does not apply beyond the borders of the US. Barring it being a US citizen or national, of course, and I don't believe anyone has shown they routinely target those. Not that the surveillance state is an entirely positive thing, mind you.
I think we need much better controls on the various agencies. That does not, however, justify knee jerk reactions which aren't even accurate. All that sort of lazy argument does is give those who disagree an easy out.
'cause they do it I can do it' is fucked up. It may be pragmatic but it is fucked. 'Virginia has slaves, Kentucky must have slaves too'. I mean, it is pragmatic. Sometimes I think of Ars as a Moot and I'm cool with that but at least leave obtuse in the grass.
It's not a matter of 'cause they do it I can do it'. Rather it's 'cause they do it I have to do it'.
We don't have much to fear from the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We have a lot to fear from Russia, North Korea, and various other counties. Fire emblem 8 hack rom download. If we don't engage in these activities then we will be at a disadvantage because those countries will continue. We've been lucky that the Five Eyes are willing to work together both politically and economically. The rest of the world is not so accommodating.
More CES 2016. Linksys has a long history of supporting alternative firmware going back to the famous mid-90s. After, however,. Ten years later, and line. Now, most users just want to be able to plug in their Wi-Fi routers and go. But for people who want the most from their routers - from upping transmission power to running an OpenVPN server - is exactly what they need.
Linksys Firmware Upgrade Utility
DD-WRT now expands the third party firmware choices for the WRT series of routers beyond the current support via 's 'Chaos Calmer' release. With DD-WRT, developers can provide custom firmware solutions for commercial applications for the new Linksys WRT platform. 'With Linksys and Marvel working closely to improve the upstream support for the Marvel CPUs and Wi-Fi radios, DD-WRT can now provide stable and robust support for the modern WRT series of routers in our alternate firmware platform, building on what was started many years back with the first WRT,' said Peter Steinhauser, Co-CEO, DD-WRT in a statement. By registering you become a member of the CBS Interactive family of sites and you have read and agree to the, and. You agree to receive updates, alerts and promotions from CBS and that CBS may share information about you with our marketing partners so that they may contact you by email or otherwise about their products or services.
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Author: Published April 24, 2017 8:55 pm in, Linksys is working on a firmware update for 10 security vulnerabilities affecting its “Smart” Wi-Fi series of routers. Tao Sauvage, a security consultant for IOActive, came across the flaws after reverse-engineering the firmware for the EA3500 Series, one of more than 20 Linksys Smart Wi-Fi router models which use the 802. 11AC standards. Sauvage and his friend Antide Petit discovered 10 bugs in total. Six of those are vulnerable to exploitation by an unauthenticated attacker. Linksys EA3500 Series UART connection.
(Source: IOActive) The security holes break down as follows:. An unauthenticated actor can exploit two of the flaws to create a denial of service (DoS) condition and thereby render the router unresponsive. Until the individual ceases their attack, an admin can’t access the router’s web interface and users can’t connect to the network. Attackers can bypass the authentication measures protecting the Common Gateway Interface ( CGI) scripts to collect information from the router.
Vulnerable data includes the router’s firmware version, running processes, as well as all connected devices and their respective operating systems. It’s possible for an actor to execute commands with root privileges on the operating system of the router. The attacker can leverage this unintended functionality to create a backdoor or gain persistent access to the router. Here’s a list of the vulnerable models:.
EA2700. EA2750. EA3500. EA4500v3. EA6100. EA6200. Celestron telescopes manuals.
EA6300. EA6350v2. EA6350v3. EA6400. EA6500. EA6700. EA6900.
EA7300. EA7400.
EA7500. EA8300. EA8500. EA9200. EA9400. EA9500.
WRT1200AC. WRT1900AC.
Linksys E1200 Hacked Firmware
WRT1900ACS. WRT3200ACM To evaluate the impact of the vulnerabilities, Sauvage and Petit used Shodan to identify vulnerable devices exposed on the web. The two researchers what they discovered: “We found about 7,000 vulnerable devices exposed at the time of the search. It should be noted that this number does not take into account vulnerable devices protected by strict firewall rules or running behind another network appliance, which could still be compromised by attackers who have access to the individual or company’s internal network.” The majority (69 percent) of those affected devices identified by the researchers are located in the United States. IOActive notified Linksys of the flaws back in January 2017.
Since then, the two firms have been coordinating responsible disclosure of the security holes. For instance, IOActive has said it won’t release a technical write-up of the issues until Linksys publishes an update, which it says it’s working on in a. While admins await this fix, Linksys recommends they help protect their devices by enabling automatic updates, disabling Wi-Fi guest networks if they’re not in use, and changing the default administrator password. I can’t emphasize that last recommendation enough. Not only is it a, but it will also help defend against malware like that compromises IoT devices by brute-forcing their default login credentials. If you are concerned about good security, do not look to Linksys.
They have no commitment to maintain firmware updates for any known period of time and while their technical support is very nice, they have very limited expertise. I recently purchased a WRT1900AC, had connections problems and found it was an older version that they are no longer updating. Fortunately, I was able to return it. Unless you can get open source firmware updates for a Linksys router, would seriously recommend replacing it. In any case, you could still repurpose it as a access point but, unless Linksys changes their support plans, would avoid relying on it as your primary router.
Bad news for consumers with Linksys routers: Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed the existence of nearly a dozen of unpatched security flaws in Linksys routers, affecting 25 different Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Routers models widely used today. IOActive's senior security consultant Tao Sauvage and independent security researcher Antide Petit published a on Wednesday, revealing that they discovered 10 bugs late last year in 25 different Linksys router models.
Out of 10 security issues (ranging from moderate to critical), six can be exploited remotely by unauthenticated attackers. According to the researchers, when exploited, the flaws could allow an attacker to overload the router, force a reboot by creating DoS conditions, deny legitimate user access, leak sensitive data, change restricted settings and even plant backdoors.
Many of the active exposed on the internet scanned by Shodan were using default credentials, making them susceptible to the takeover. Researchers found more than 7,000 devices impacted by the security flaws at the time of the scan, though this does not include routers protected by firewalls or other network protections. 'We performed a mass-scan of the 7,000 devices to identify the affected models,' IOActive says. 'We found that 11% of the 7000 exposed devices were using default credentials and therefore could be rooted by attackers.' IOActive made Linksys aware of the issues in January this year and is working 'closely and cooperatively' with the company ever since to validate and address the vulnerabilities. Here's How critical are these Flaws: The researchers did not reveal more details about the vulnerabilities until the patch is made available to users, although they said two of the flaws could be used for denial-of-service attacks on routers, making them unresponsive or reboot by sending fraudulent requests to a specific API.
Other flaws could allow attackers to bypass CGI scripts to collect sensitive data such as firmware versions, Linux kernel versions, running processes, connected USB devices, Wi-Fi WPS pins, firewall configurations, FTP settings, and SMB server settings. CGI, or Common Gateway Interface, is a standard protocol which tells the web server how to pass data to and from an application. Researchers also warned that attackers those have managed to gain authentication on the devices can inject and execute malicious code on the device's operating system with root privileges.
With these capabilities in hands, attackers can create backdoor accounts for persistent access that are even invisible in the router smart management console and so to legitimate administrators. However, researchers did not find an authentication bypass that can allow an attacker to exploit this flaw. List of Vulnerable Linksys Router Models: Here's the list of Linksys router models affected by the flaws: EA2700, EA2750, EA3500, EA4500v3, EA6100, EA6200, EA6300, EA6350v2, EA6350v3, EA6400, EA6500, EA6700, EA6900, EA7300, EA7400, EA7500, EA8300, EA8500, EA9200, EA9400, EA9500, WRT1200AC, WRT1900AC, WRT1900ACS, and WRT3200ACM. The majority of the exposed devices (nearly 69%) are located in in the United States, and others are spotted in countries including Canada (almost 10%), Hong Kong (nearly 1.8%), Chile (1.5%), and the Netherlands (1.4%).
A small percentage of vulnerable Linksys routers have also been spotted in Argentina, Russia, Sweden, Norway, China, India, UK, and Australia. Here's How you can Mitigate Attacks originating from these Flaws: As temporary mitigation, Linksys recommended its customers to disable the Guest Network feature on any of its affected products to avoid any attempts at the malicious activity. The company also advised customers to change the password in the default account in order to protect themselves until a new firmware update is made available to patch the problems. Linksys is patches for reported vulnerabilities with next firmware update for all affected devices. So users with Smart Wi-Fi devices should turn ON the automatically update feature to get the latest firmware as soon as the new versions arrive.
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