Millions Of Routers Vulnerable To New Version Of Old Attack

[trogers]

Just when you think using a NAT router protects you from hackers...

http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/07/millions-of-soho-routers-vulnerable-to-new-version-of-old-attack.ars

[Crushdepth]

You're ok so long as you're using a decent password on your router, which you should be doing anyway. But it's amazing how many people don't bother.

[dave_boo]

Crushdepth beat me to it.....

It is a bit disturbing that non-techy people have such power over their own information and yet don't understand how to use it. I kinda blame the router manufacturers, it would be trivial to set the routers up to request an unique password before serving their first packet from the outside world, but oh well.

[SantiSuk]

How do you access and change a router's password.

I have a bog standard ADSL router that my Thai wife got when TOT set up the connection 3 years ago; no retained instructions (why do Thais always throw away instructions?!) but they were probably in Thai anyway.

Any merit in buying a new router?

I take this seriously because for the last few months my laptop has shown all the symptoms of being taken over by someone else from time to time! I will return the machine to its factory default settings when I get back to the UK and my various programme disks.

Edited August 4, 2010 by SantiSuk

[dave_boo]

How do you access and change a router's password.

I have a bog standard ADSL router that my Thai wife got when TOT set up the connection 3 years ago; no retained instructions (why do Thais always throw away instructions?!) but they were probably in Thai anyway.

Any merit in buying a new router?

I take this seriously because for the last few months my laptop has shown all the symptoms of being taken over by someone else from time to time! I will return the machine to its factory default settings when I get back to the UK and my various programme disks.

If you knew the computer's IP address you can usually use the xx.xx.xx.1 (where the xx.xx.xx are the first three sets of digits of your computer's IP and 1 replaces the last set--usually routers are 192.168.0.1) and "admin" for the router's password. Look around at the settings and see if you can find the "change administrator's password" or something to that effect.

**edit**

The admin password by default could be many things, but I've found that admin is usually it. Google any model number you can find on the bottom of the unit to be certain.

Edited August 4, 2010 by dave_boo

[Pib]

Many of the current TOT modems come with the password "TOT"

[lomatopo]

You're ok so long as you're using a decent password on your router, which you should be doing anyway. But it's amazing how many people don't bother.

From the article...

Though these front-ends are normally password-protected, most people don't bother changing the default passwords. And, even when they do change the password, security flaws within the front-end may allow the password to be bypassed anyway.

No argument that one should change the default username and password, but this article implies that even that may not be enough?

[trogers]

You're ok so long as you're using a decent password on your router, which you should be doing anyway. But it's amazing how many people don't bother.

From the article...

Though these front-ends are normally password-protected, most people don't bother changing the default passwords. And, even when they do change the password, security flaws within the front-end may allow the password to be bypassed anyway.

No argument that one should change the default username and password, but this article implies that even that may not be enough?

Two active things we can do to reduce the risk of being hacked - set a personal password and not use the default password, and change the IP address of the gateway from the standard 192.168.0.1, or 192.168.1.1, or 192.168.1.254 to some other.

Example, use 192.168.53.5 for the gateway with the corresponding subnet range of 192.168.53.6-20 for the connecting computers.

For those who are contemplating buying a new router, choose a model (see test results referred in the news article) that has been tested negative to hacking.

Hopefully, router makers will come up with the appropriate firmware updates to counter this issue.

Edited August 4, 2010 by trogers

[Crushdepth]

And make sure remote administration is turned off.