ASUS Routers; Botnets, backdoors, etc etc

pendragon1

pendragon1

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sauron calls...​


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Is your Asus router part of a botnet? How to check - and what you can do​

https://www.zdnet.com/article/is-your-asus-router-part-of-a-botnet-how-to-check-and-what-you-can-do/

timestamped

View: https://youtu.be/SuqpMnAAXwY?t=1446
 
I'm in the process of eliminating this possibility, by eliminating the asus router I have from the network. The RT-AC67P has no new fw, is unsupported by openwrt, so away it goes!

Got a tp-link eap610 v3 that I just flashed openwrt on, going to be the wap. Ordered a nanopi R5C, it will be the router when it arrives. Between them, a poe switch will serve wired clients, and power the wap.
 
Nobu said:
I'm in the process of eliminating this possibility, by eliminating the asus router I have from the network. The RT-AC67P has no new fw, is unsupported by openwrt, so away it goes!

Got a tp-link eap610 v3 that I just flashed openwrt on, going to be the wap. Ordered a nanopi R5C, it will be the router when it arrives. Between them, a poe switch will serve wired clients, and power the wap.
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If you really want to lock out the baddies, just use some used enterprise router--any of them. They'll be far more power than any home would ever need and even if obsolete will still have had far more security pentesting done on it.
 
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SamirD said:
If you really want to lock out the baddies, just use some used enterprise router--any of them. They'll be far more power than any home would ever need and even if obsolete will still have had far more security pentesting done on it.
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but often times these devices requires subscriptions... I think his approach was better overall
 
Vengance_01 said:
but often times these devices requires subscriptions... I think his approach was better overall
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Only for advanced features well beyond what a home environment would need. And they're cheap too. Usually under $100 for something that handles 1Gb+ without breaking a sweat. Plus some more advanced control beyond consumer stuff like access control.
 
I have a Nigthawk or whatever I got from a customer (the ISP sent them a new $20 router so they no longer needed it apprently...). I wanted to use it but its a cable router and I'd have to put a VDSL modem back in before it for it to work and thats a pain. I might look up to see if it has a newer firmware in case I need to use it in an emergency. It's a damn big thing.

I have to admit I always switch off ANYTHING on a router I don't need or use. It just has to handle the internet connection and dishing out a limited range of IPs.
 
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daglesj said:
I have a Nigthawk or whatever I got from a customer (the ISP sent them a new $20 router so they no longer needed it apprently...). I wanted to use it but its a cable router and I'd have to put a VDSL modem back in before it for it to work and thats a pain. I might look up to see if it has a newer firmware in case I need to use it in an emergency. It's a damn big thing.

I have to admit I always switch off ANYTHING on a router I don't need or use. It just has to handle the internet connection and dishing out a limited range of IPs.
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Why do you want to use it? If you only want to use it for its wifi capability, just use it as an access point with your existing router--easy peasy. It's also how wireless is done in the enterprise since routing and wireless access are two different functions.
 
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SamirD said:
Why do you want to use it? If you only want to use it for its wifi capability, just use it as an access point with your existing router--easy peasy. It's also how wireless is done in the enterprise since routing and wireless access are two different functions.
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I already have a separate SOHO WAP hooked up high to my exisiting VDSL router that then hooks to my 16 port switch. The only reason I would want to use it is to see how it deals with buffer bloat.
 
daglesj said:
I already have a separate SOHO WAP hooked up high to my exisiting VDSL router that then hooks to my 16 port switch. The only reason I would want to use it is to see how it deals with buffer bloat.
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Buffer bloat isn't something to worry about. My enterprise grade router failed dslreports bufferbloat test many times and I don't even know where else someone can test it today.
 
SamirD said:
Buffer bloat isn't something to worry about. My enterprise grade router failed dslreports bufferbloat test many times and I don't even know where else someone can test it today.
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https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat
😉
I got an a+ on my phone, via
ap -> switch -> r5c -> tp-link modem -> cox
Screenshot_20250727-235404.png


On my desktop unloaded latency was worse, but it dropped to about what you see here when loaded upload/download. I have QoSmate and AdGuardHome running on the r5c, which probably reduces my throughput a bit.
 
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Yeah, this test says an enterprise router is just A on a 500Mb symmetrical commercial line, lol. Not much better than the dslreports test imo.
 
Randall Stephens said:
The power draw on the used enterprise stuff is what gave me pause, or the active cooling fans that sound like leaf blowers.
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Didn't see your reply until just now. Because most consumer applications is far, far, far below an enterprise router's capability, you can usually disconnect the fans and not even worry on most units. My own have never seen cpu usage above basically 0% and I'm doing stuff that's clearly in the 'smb' realm.
 
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