Newer TP-Link Routers send large volumes of requests to Avira servers • Hacker News Board

Re: Newer TP-Link Routers send large volumes of requests to Avira servers

#81

Post by vdfs » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 1:53 PM UTC

alufers wrote: post #62

ajot wrote: post #8

That's before installing OpenWRT! This kind of shenanigans make (once again) the case for 3rd party post market FLOSS firmware to be installed on every device I own. Sure, I spend some extra time researching which router/AP/phone/ereader/smart appliance will be compatible with OpenWRT/LineageOS/KOReader/Tasmota/ESPHome/etc., but I feel more confortable this way. I have more trust in a bunch of people doing this for o…

Newer TP-Links use broadcom chips which have no drivers on Linux, so it makes using openwrt basically impossible.

openwrt is not possible to use on a lot of new hardware, it's also not possible to use new versions on older hardware, they started to require more minimum RAM/FLASH. DSL or GPON is of the table

Re: Newer TP-Link Routers send large volumes of requests to Avira servers

#82

Post by Pxtl » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 1:57 PM UTC

zinekeller wrote: post #24

Before you say anything about this feature (which is apparently called HomeCare, https://www.tp-link.com/homecare/ ), you should probably know that Asus also has a AiProtection feature powered by Trend Micro ( https://www.asus.com/content/aiprotection/ ) and D-Link having McAfee Secure Home Platform built-in ( https://www.dlink.com/en/latest-news/d-link-introduces-new-e... ). Definitely not vindicating TP-Link here (…

Yes but the feature is optional, and tells you how it works if you turn it on.

And realistically, most of the extended features on consumer routers are ineffective at best and network-destroying in typical cases.

For example, I've never used a router ever turning on QOS did anything but trash network performance.

I use and recommend Asus routers because in spite of them being shitpiles when you turn on anything but the basic functionality, the industry standard is that low that consistently good basic functionality is a stand out success.

The router industry makes printer companies look like Apple.

Re: Newer TP-Link Routers send large volumes of requests to Avira servers

#83

Post by t0mas88 » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 1:57 PM UTC

jmillikin wrote: post #70

This was alarming since I use a TP-Link router, so I tried figuring out to what extent it's able to inspect and record regular (encrypted) traffic. My TP-Link Archer AX50, running software version "1.0.11 Build 20210730 rel.54485(4A50)" is doing at least some sort of DPI on outgoing connections. I found a page in its settings (Advanced -> Security -> Antivirus -> History) that contains a log of connections I've made…

It could be doing reverse lookup on the IP you connected to? That's what a lot of network monitoring tools do.

Re: Newer TP-Link Routers send large volumes of requests to Avira servers

#84

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 1:59 PM UTC

danpalmer wrote: post #2

I remember reading in the UK government's security assessment of Huawei that one of the issues is not necessarily data being sent to bad places or backdoors in the software, it's that the engineering processes behind these devices/software are completely unable to protect against any sort of supply chain attacks. The sorts of things they highlighted were: no version control, no code review, production builds happenin…

[deleted]

Re: Newer TP-Link Routers send large volumes of requests to Avira servers

#85

Post by blibble » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 2:00 PM UTC

servytor wrote: post #58

danpalmer wrote: post #2

I remember reading in the UK government's security assessment of Huawei that one of the issues is not necessarily data being sent to bad places or backdoors in the software, it's that the engineering processes behind these devices/software are completely unable to protect against any sort of supply chain attacks. The sorts of things they highlighted were: no version control, no code review, production builds happenin…

The UK has been indecisive about trusting Huawei [0 (sorry for the Daily Mail link),1,2,3]; I don't know why and find it very interesting. I am used to reading about nation states having an unwavering opinion, not flipping back and forth (unless because of political lines). They claim that their hand has been forced by the USA [4]. [0] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7935905/MI5-MI6-GCH... [1] https://www.cn…

vince cable is not part of the government and has no more information on the situation than you or I

the government was resistant to the US' position until the CCP's crackdown on hong kong, at which point they reversed their position

Re: Newer TP-Link Routers send large volumes of requests to Avira servers

#86

Post by simcop2387 » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 2:02 PM UTC

mananaysiempre wrote: post #35

mise_en_place wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could also buy an SBC with a few network ports and use that as your router.

IME small ARM SBCs generally have a miserably slow bus arrangement for this sort of thing (and no hardware switch chip, of course). People have had some success with routers built on x86 mini-PCs[1], but these lean towards the “flexible and performant” side, not the cheap side. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/04/the-ars-guide-to-bui...

I repurposed an old hp thin client for this. It's basically an x86 laptop thrown in a case with a single x8 pcie slot that I threw a dual 10gbe network card in (entirely because it was basically the same price used as a multiport 1gbe card and I already had a spare 10g port on my switch). It still cost more overall with adding an external AP to it but it's been roxk solid when I'm not trying to abuse it's emmc storage.

Re: Newer TP-Link Routers send large volumes of requests to Avira servers

#87

Post by jamal-kumar » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 2:02 PM UTC

Hasn't avira been just generally for a lack of better words completely fucking awful over the past year or two? The last I remember hearing about them was installing crypto miners along with their AV, which I can only imagine being bottom quality at this rate of insanely bad behaviour...

Re: Newer TP-Link Routers send large volumes of requests to Avira servers

#88

Post by blibble » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 2:03 PM UTC

zrail wrote: post #66

mananaysiempre wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IME small ARM SBCs generally have a miserably slow bus arrangement for this sort of thing (and no hardware switch chip, of course). People have had some success with routers built on x86 mini-PCs[1], but these lean towards the “flexible and performant” side, not the cheap side. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/04/the-ars-guide-to-bui...

I just built a relatively decked out router from eBay and Amazon parts for less than $300. - used HP Elitedesk 800 G3 SFF (4 core i5-6500, 8GB ram, 240gb SSD, 4x PCIe slots) $170 shipped - 2x new dual 2.5Gbe PCIe cards $40 each - 1x used quad port Internet gigabit $30 shipped So for $280 I have a machine that will route at 2.5Gbe for a few machines and gigabit for the rest of my network while using about 25 watts. If…

I am very much interested in building my own router in a similar way, but 25W is still about 5x as much power as something like a mikrotik

Re: Newer TP-Link Routers send large volumes of requests to Avira servers

#89

Post by speed_spread » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 2:04 PM UTC

alufers wrote: post #62

ajot wrote: post #8

That's before installing OpenWRT! This kind of shenanigans make (once again) the case for 3rd party post market FLOSS firmware to be installed on every device I own. Sure, I spend some extra time researching which router/AP/phone/ereader/smart appliance will be compatible with OpenWRT/LineageOS/KOReader/Tasmota/ESPHome/etc., but I feel more confortable this way. I have more trust in a bunch of people doing this for o…

Newer TP-Links use broadcom chips which have no drivers on Linux, so it makes using openwrt basically impossible.

Is that the same Broadcom that makes the closed GPU on RaspberryPi? Why, oh why, can't they just play nice and document their hardware. Maybe they want to get bought by NVidia!

Re: Newer TP-Link Routers send large volumes of requests to Avira servers

#90

Post by zrail » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 2:04 PM UTC

blibble wrote: post #88

zrail wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just built a relatively decked out router from eBay and Amazon parts for less than $300. - used HP Elitedesk 800 G3 SFF (4 core i5-6500, 8GB ram, 240gb SSD, 4x PCIe slots) $170 shipped - 2x new dual 2.5Gbe PCIe cards $40 each - 1x used quad port Internet gigabit $30 shipped So for $280 I have a machine that will route at 2.5Gbe for a few machines and gigabit for the rest of my network while using about 25 watts. If…

I am very much interested in building my own router in a similar way, but 25W is still about 5x as much power as something like a mikrotik

Sure. There are plenty of platforms you can start with that use less power. For the record I haven't actually measured it, that's just a guess. I'll throw it on a power monitor sometime and check.