Netgear router bugs could have given hackers the keys to the kingdom
There’s more to security than securing the OS
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Cybersecurityresearchers have disclosed vulnerabilities inNetgear’s DGN-2200v1 seriesroutersthat can be abused to gain access to business networks.
Researchers from theMicrosoft 365Defender Research Team were first alerted by a device owned by non-IT personnel trying to access the router’s management port. This led them to investigate whether there was an exploitable weakness in the firmware.
“In our research, we unpacked the router firmware and found three vulnerabilities that can be reliably exploited,”wroteJonathan Bar Or,Principal Security Researcher atMicrosoft.
We’re looking at how our readers use VPNs with streaming sites like Netflix so we can improve our content and offer better advice. This survey won’t take more than 60 seconds of your time, and you can also choose to enter the prize draw to win a $100 Amazon voucher or one of five 1-year ExpressVPN subscriptions.
Click here to start the survey in a new window«
Interestingly, the researchers were led to explore the router while playing with thenew device discovery capabilitiesin Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.
Securing the realm
The researchers point out that an increasing number of recent attacks on internet-facing devices suggest attackers are looking beyond exploiting weaknesses in theoperating system.
Bar Or says these attacks hint that, in addition to securing their operating systems, businesses of all sizes must ensure that even “single-purpose software that run their hardware—like routers” are fully secure.
Describing the three issues, all of which have now been fixed, he notes that one enabled the researchers to access the router’s management pages by exploiting an authentication bypass vulnerability.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
The researchers then extracted the credentials of the router’s admin user via a cryptographic side-channel attack, and even recovered authentication details stored in the router’s memory by exploiting the configuration backup/restore feature.
“Routers are integral to networking, so it is important to secure the programs supporting its functions. Collaboration between vulnerability researchers, software vendors and other players is crucial to helping secure the overall user experience,” concludes Bar Or.
With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
Nokia confirms data breach leaked third-party code, but its data is safe
Rising AI threats are making firms turn back to human intelligence
3 reasons why PIA fell in our best VPN rankings
