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Netgear 0-day vulnerability analysis and exploit

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31–40 of 102 posts

Re: Netgear 0-day vulnerability analysis and exploit

#31
I am sick of having to assume my network hardware is trivially compromised.

What will it take for me to be able to purchase a microkernel driven router/access-point with audited drivers (or Rust based)? I would settle for mediocre performance (ie no gigabit) if I could have some strong security guarantees.

Can I setup Redox or seL4 as home network hardware at this point? Or would the pain threshold still be quite high?

Re: Netgear 0-day vulnerability analysis and exploit

#34
post #23
post #6

The worst part is this isn't even just going to affect folks that would never think to update their router firmware. The firmware they do push out is frequently a massive downgrade. About a year ago, I tried to update the firmware on my Netgear router. It was the exact model from the article, the R7000. I assumed "new update" for router firmware would involve some critical security updates, and maybe some stability f…

The best thing about setting up Google wifi routers for your relatives is you can set yourself up as the manager of them, and manage them with the Google Wifi app from anywhere. So before Uncle Bob calls you about the wifi you'd already have got the notification that his cable service is down again.

I do this with my elderly parents. Doubles as a "powers gone out - are they freezing" alert.

Re: Netgear 0-day vulnerability analysis and exploit

#35
post #27

In SOHO devices like the R7000, the web server must parse user input from the network and run complex CGI functions that use that input. Furthermore, the web server is written in C and has had very little testing, and thus it is often vulnerable to trivial memory corruption bugs. I wonder why these network equipment manufacturers are still using CGIs in their firmware?! Is it because the MCUs they use in their hardwa…

Rust isn't magic. And you can write CGIs in any language. Shouldn't we also ask why are they using their own web server? or why a company with millions of devices deployed has done little testing?

Re: Netgear 0-day vulnerability analysis and exploit

#36

I am sick of having to assume my network hardware is trivially compromised. What will it take for me to be able to purchase a microkernel driven router/access-point with audited drivers (or Rust based)? I would settle for mediocre performance (ie no gigabit) if I could have some strong security guarantees. Can I setup Redox or seL4 as home network hardware at this point? Or would the pain threshold still be quite hig…

I run an OpenBSD router at home. I'm not sure if that would satisfy your security requirements.

Re: Netgear 0-day vulnerability analysis and exploit

#37
post #30

I've used Apple routers for many years, but since they've been discontinued I wonder what I'll do when I need to replace them. All the major alternatives seem to have crap software that requires frequent reboots and has security issues. Can anyone recommend an awesome wireless router that works great off the shelf? I don't want to have to learn how to flash it with DD-WRT.

Eero

Re: Netgear 0-day vulnerability analysis and exploit

#38
post #5

Treat these devices like PCs: See the installed system as "example installation to demonstrate functioning". Like HP with the bundled Crapware on PCs. Just install OpenWrt as soon as you did a basic function test. And only buy hardware you know to be compatible.

The problem with than plan however, is that many of these devices tend to depend on arcane network hardware acceleration features in order to reach decent switching throughput. Which rules out OpenWrt on some of the lower-spec pieces if you have a faster WAN connection (Ie. 1gbit), as I don't believe they have support for these on many platforms. (MT7621 is referenced as supported, and Qualcomm's "SFE" being supporte…

> Which rules out OpenWrt on some of the lower-spec pieces

it's ruled out in any case as of now, because the current releases require (or at least strongly recommend) 64 MB of RAM, which surprisingly in 2020 is a problem in the networking world (for the cheapest -under 70$- devices)

Re: Netgear 0-day vulnerability analysis and exploit

#39

I am sick of having to assume my network hardware is trivially compromised. What will it take for me to be able to purchase a microkernel driven router/access-point with audited drivers (or Rust based)? I would settle for mediocre performance (ie no gigabit) if I could have some strong security guarantees. Can I setup Redox or seL4 as home network hardware at this point? Or would the pain threshold still be quite hig…

> I am sick of having to assume my network hardware is trivially compromised.

I don't have the gateway my ISP gave me on my LAN for this reason. I do have to laugh a little bit about people who use a VPN to hide requests (DNS? Because most of the web is HTTPS, now) from their ISP when their ISP has a device on their network.

Re: Netgear 0-day vulnerability analysis and exploit

#40

Reading stuff like this makes me glad I ditched consumer grade all-in-one stuff and went with a $REAL (feel free to substitute appropriate brand) router and stand alone AP.

That's not a workable solution for the vast majority of the population.
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