U.S. Government Warns Of Hack Threat To Network Gear

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The government says you could be spied on or hacked by someone beside them....and that makes them mad. ;)

The Department of Homeland Security urged computer users on Tuesday to disable a common networking technology feature, after researchers warned that hackers could exploit flaws to gain access to tens of millions of vulnerable devices.
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I was under the impression that WPS used UPnP and that was where the problem actually lied... been wrong plenty before
 
UPnP, a communications protocol, is designed to let networks identify and communicate with equipment, reducing the amount of work it takes to set up networks.
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They mean a Communist protocol!! Pitch forks ready!
 
jonathonball said:
I was under the impression that WPS used UPnP and that was where the problem actually lied... been wrong plenty before
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No. AFAIK, the problem was with the WPS specification and how it verified the PIN it used to shake hands with PC's and the router. That PIN was verified in two seperate steps, 2 sets of 4 digits (which made cracking said PIN trivial). IIRC, it also told you if the first set of 4 digits was correct or not making it that much worse lol
 
The article mentions a tool from Rapid7 to test for the vulnerability, but then doesn't post the link...
Anyway, it is easily found on the rapid7.com site.

just for kicks, i wanted to test this, but i stopped....... the really funny thing is that the scanner requires Java runtime to work :p:p. yea, I know we're talking runtime, but you gotta love it!
 
jonathonball said:
I was under the impression that WPS used UPnP and that was where the problem actually lied... been wrong plenty before
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I think I'm pretty safe because mine didn't work even when I wanted it to. I had to turn off all protection for it to work. Then once it had discovered the device it was able to do it again with WPA2 on. I also use mac address filtering so the hacker would need pretty good skills to even try it.
 
the main problem is if you have anything to hide.

people without anything to hide wont be affected
 
Just so happens the whole consumer level digital playback industry is all basically UPnP. I believe even DLNA is a UPnP variant or requires UPnP to work smoothly.

So basically the government is scaring you off Rokus, WDTVs, etc. and the quick and dirty file servers that support them.
 
As I recall there might be some P2P methods that involve UPnP to open router ports. I don't see why any honest computer users would be interested in this clearly evil technology. ;)
 
I'm torn between:

The idea that this is meant for government networks and those of government employees (not civilian)

and

The idea that it's not really a problem if you don't do anything with it
 
LoL, passed,

ScanNow by Rapid7
-----------------
Vulnerability Scan Results
Overview of Results
Date and Time 01/30/13 00:20:40
IP Range Scanned 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254
Exploitable 0
Identified 1
Result Details
192.168.1.1 Identified

Want to scan for more vulnerabilities? Download the free Nexpose Community Edition at http://www.rapid7.com/vulnerability-scanner.jsp


I jumped through the goofy hoops too, fake name, fake email, fake everything. Needing java 32 bit took about a minute to scan my router is a Netgear wndr4500.
 
mtrupi said:
I think I'm pretty safe because mine didn't work even when I wanted it to. I had to turn off all protection for it to work. Then once it had discovered the device it was able to do it again with WPA2 on. I also use mac address filtering so the hacker would need pretty good skills to even try it.
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Mac address filtering is worthless. It offers nearly no protection whatsoever. It's easy to find active addresses and spoof them.
 
timta2 said:
Mac address filtering is worthless. It offers nearly no protection whatsoever. It's easy to find active addresses and spoof them.
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Running that 6.0MB???? scan thing now as I am curious what it finds running Openwrt. Identified 1 item on my router address. Click the links and the pages say nothing is there. Great tool.

Mac Address filtering is useful if you need to use a hotspot for free.
 
This is a giant non-issue.

Someone would need to be already INSIDE your network to exploit any Upnp flaw.
That, or send you something that exploits this, and you go and open it.

In either case, you have bigger problems on your hands.
 
Oppy said:
I jumped through the goofy hoops too, fake name, fake email, fake everything. Needing java 32 bit took about a minute to scan my router is a Netgear wndr4500.
Click to expand...
So basically you opened yourself to the Java vulnerabilities to find these vulnerabilities.
 
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