US could ban Chinese-made TP-Link routers over hacking fears: report

[MrGuvernment]

Here we go with the next Chinese company to get the shaft...

I do understand the concerns and why, but until countries literally start making all of their IT gear in their own country down to every last controller / chip, how far down the rabbit hole do we go.

US government investigators believe that TP-Link routinely fails to address vulnerabilities in their products that are then shipped to customers who use the routers for both home and business purposes, according to the Journal.

Hackers are then able to exploit the vulnerabilities to carry out ransomware attacks and other cyber crimes, it has been alleged.

When cybersecurity experts point out the flaws in TP-Link routers, the company declines to engage with them, according to the Journal.

I guess then we should start banning so many other companies that do this same thing? How about banning all of the over night chinese companies selling mini-pc's on various sites that never get updated or patched....

US could ban Chinese-made TP-Link routers over hacking fears: report
https://nypost.com/2024/12/18/busin...de-tp-link-routers-over-hacking-fears-report/

The US government is weighing a ban on a popular brand of Chinese-made home-internet routers over fears that their links to cyberattacks pose a national security risk, according to a report.

TP-Link, the manufacturer of high-speed cable modems, routers, range extenders and smart home devices that has grabbed a 65% market share in the United States, is currently the subject of several investigations being overseen by a number of federal agencies, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Departments of Commerce, Defense and Justice have all opened probes into the company, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

Chinese workers are seen above at a factory run by TP-Link in Shenzhen in March 2020.ZUMAPRESS.com
A ban on sales of TP-Link products could come sometime next year — after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the Journal reported.


A division of the Commerce Department has even gone so far as to issue a subpoena to TP-Link, according to the report.

TP Link the top choice on Amazon, and powers web communications for the Defense Department and other federal agencies, according to the report.

 

[sleepeeg3]

TP-Link routers are undercutting much of the market. Stick with Netgear (US) or ASUS (Taiwan) for networking equipment, both non-Communist countries. China's objective is clear. Using open-source firmware additionally frees them up from any spying.

 

[1.1.2.3.5...]

They make good switches. Maybe I should do some port mirroring and see if there's anything sneaky going on. OTOH, I feel like if there was, people would have seen it already....

 

[Legendary Gamer]

Here we go with the next Chinese company to get the shaft...

I do understand the concerns and why, but until countries literally start making all of their IT gear in their own country down to every last controller / chip, how far down the rabbit hole do we go.



I guess then we should start banning so many other companies that do this same thing? How about banning all of the over night chinese companies selling mini-pc's on various sites that never get updated or patched....

US could ban Chinese-made TP-Link routers over hacking fears: report
https://nypost.com/2024/12/18/busin...de-tp-link-routers-over-hacking-fears-report/
View attachment 698512

Gawdammit!!! I do not have endless money to keep rebuying shit constantly... I had one of these in a box as a backup, just deployed last night after my old router took a crap... I am just gonna build my own Pfsense box or see if I can drop an Open Source OS onto this thing. Ugh...

 

[kydsid]

TP-Link routers are undercutting much of the market. Stick with Netgear (US) or ASUS (Taiwan) for networking equipment, both non-Communist countries. China's objective is clear. Using open-source firmware additionally frees them up from any spying.

Maybe Netgear should make decent management software or ASUS make anything decent at all. Neither one can compete with TPLink. Even if TPLink raised their prices, I'd still go TPLink for ease of integration, management software, more choice instead of demanding a subscription model, and more, unless it was a dead unmanaged switch. Then sure Netgear. Asus isn't in the ballpark of either company.

Nevermind lets talk about how Cisco has had backdoors, at this point who hasn't? Lets also clarify that TPLINK's highlighted failure to patch was in a extremely cheap series of routers.

 

[Lakados]

They make good switches. Maybe I should do some port mirroring and see if there's anything sneaky going on. OTOH, I feel like if there was, people would have seen it already....

They already have, the TP Link “Home Shield” has been shown time and time again to not only contain backdoors but also siphon data to 3’rd parties for “analytics” it also overrides your preferred DNS settings using theirs instead.

 

[Legendary Gamer]

Maybe Netgear should make decent management software or ASUS make anything decent at all. Neither one can compete with TPLink. Even if TPLink raised their prices, I'd still go TPLink for ease of integration, management software, more choice instead of demanding a subscription model, and more, unless it was a dead unmanaged switch. Then sure Netgear. Asus isn't in the ballpark of either company.

Nevermind lets talk about how Cisco has had backdoors, at this point who hasn't? Lets also clarify that TPLINK's highlighted failure to patch was in a extremely cheap series of routers.

I just setup my wireless mesh network last night, with second hand range extenders I got at a bin store for 5 bucks and it was flawless. The interface for the WiFi 6, AX1800 Tplink router was slick and simple to configure. It doesn't support 3rd party firmware... so. Awesome... F'ing China...

 

[Legendary Gamer]

They already have, the TP Link “Home Shield” has been shown time and time again to not only contain backdoors but also siphon data to 3’rd parties for “analytics” it also overrides your preferred DNS settings using theirs instead.

This is what happens when I buy shit without asking people on here. Figures...

 

[Brackle]

Yeah I knew a long time ago not to buy TP-LINK routers. Stick with Asus or Netgear

 

[1.1.2.3.5...]

They already have, the TP Link “Home Shield” has been shown time and time again to not only contain backdoors but also siphon data to 3’rd parties for “analytics” it also overrides your preferred DNS settings using theirs instead.

Never heard of "home shield". Is it something for their routers? I use opnsense and just like their switches because they have tagged vlans and are cheap and work. I know for a fact my dns settings are not being impacted. But i might do some port mirroring to be sure there isn't something I should be aware of.

 

[bigddybn]

How about someone puts forth some evidence of actual shenanigans? Odd traffic would be pretty easy to spot on any packet monitor. "Hackers used compromised XXX" is a statement that applies to literally anything that runs firmware or code. How many compromised Windows boxes have been used by hackers? Are we banning Microsoft and Intel next?

I've got TP-Link stuff all over the place and until I see some actual evidence of wrong doing I'm not getting back on the CHINA BAD train. Smells like HikVision all over again.

 

[bigddybn]

They already have, the TP Link “Home Shield” has been shown time and time again to not only contain backdoors but also siphon data to 3’rd parties for “analytics” it also overrides your preferred DNS settings using theirs instead.

Sounds like every single one of the many other crappy services that do this and if you're using consumer level junk like that then you've already got problems.

 

[GotNoRice]

China's objective is clear.

Agreed. We can't treat China like a "normal" country when that country literally wants to destroy our country. They don't think twice about stealing intellectual property. They ignore patents. They ignore safety standards.

Even if you don't care about any of that and just love low prices, keep in mind that the Chinese government subsidizes most big companies so that they can sell their products at a loss purely for the purpose of putting non-Chinese companies out of business (after which you can be guaranteed that prices will skyrocket).

This is the same country that literally colludes with Mexican cartels to manufacture and smuggle fentanyl into the United States, purely for the purpose of killing as many Americans as possible (perhaps one of the most successful proxy-war strategies we've ever seen, unfortunately).

It's time to rip the band-aid off. China isn't a business partner or a trade partner. They are the enemy. The longer we wait, the worse things will get.

 

[Lakados]

Never heard of "home shield". Is it something for their routers? I use opnsense and just like their switches because they have tagged vlans and are cheap and work. I know for a fact my dns settings are not being impacted. But i might do some port mirroring to be sure there isn't something I should be aware of.

Home Shield is their hardware "security" platform that is built into all the newer (last 5 years or so) routers, and it defaults to on and you can't completely disable it.
So if you can flash their firmware to something else completely it's fine but if you are leaving the default firmware in place you are likely in for a bad time.

The average user isn't flashing the firmware, hell most of them aren't even updating the firmware.

 

[OFaceSIG]

99% of TP Link routers are now made in Vietnam. This is not a real issue unless they have some old stock that for some reason hasn't been shipped to the US yet.

 

[Centauri]

*clutches WiFi 7 TP router...*

 

[Lakados]

Agreed. We can't treat China like a "normal" country when that country literally wants to destroy our country. They don't think twice about stealing intellectual property. They ignore patents. They ignore safety standards.

Even if you don't care about any of that and just love low prices, keep in mind that the Chinese government subsidizes most big companies so that they can sell their products at a loss purely for the purpose of putting non-Chinese companies out of business (after which you can be guaranteed that prices will skyrocket).

This is the same country that literally colludes with Mexican cartels to manufacture and smuggle fentanyl into the United States, purely for the purpose of killing as many Americans as possible (perhaps one of the most successful proxy-war strategies we've ever seen, unfortunately).

It's time to rip the band-aid off. China isn't a business partner or a trade partner. They are the enemy. The longer we wait, the worse things will get.

They have also been buying up many of the medium sized Apiaries and the land they occupy across the United States which gives them a proportionately large influence over which crops can and can't get pollinated, as most of those companies breed bees for the purpose of bringing the hives around for pollination, now if those hives are now otherwise booked or repurposed then the US will suddenly find themselves without enough bees to actually pollinate the crops which will significantly hurt yields. And if they do it targeting crops sold domestically it would force the market to order in from China at an elevated price.

 

[DukenukemX]

TP-Link routers are undercutting much of the market. Stick with Netgear (US) or ASUS (Taiwan) for networking equipment, both non-Communist countries. China's objective is clear. Using open-source firmware additionally frees them up from any spying.

Oh no, the Chinese are being capitalists. Quick, ban their products so we can keep prices high!

They already have, the TP Link “Home Shield” has been shown time and time again to not only contain backdoors but also siphon data to 3’rd parties for “analytics” it also overrides your preferred DNS settings using theirs instead.

Which routers don't? Even Cisco products have been caught with back doors as Snowden points out. This is why I install OpenWRT on my routers because eventually there are no updates and my router can quickly become compromised.

 

[Legendary Gamer]

I think I was well overdue for creating my own router... Just picked up a midget PC for 117 bucks after taxes that I can build as a router/firewall machine. I was surprised to discover that the (11th gen ) N5095 was still Dual Channel. Can't argue for the price either, 16 GB of DDR4 in Dual Channel, 512 GB SSD, Quad Core 15 Watts https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CS6GGDR4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Should be decent or maybe I will swear the entire time setting it up and then throw it at my Chinese router, lol.

 

[jlbenedict]

Never heard of "home shield". Is it something for their routers? I use opnsense and just like their switches because they have tagged vlans and are cheap and work. I know for a fact my dns settings are not being impacted. But i might do some port mirroring to be sure there isn't something I should be aware of.

HomeShield is some BS from TP-Link where you pay (yes.. subscription) to get more advanced security, features in your TP-Link router...

What used to come with a good router, back in the old days.. now is f'ing subscription based... or sold like a damn DLC...

I had a TP-Link mesh system of some sort a while back and it shit to bed after 1 year...

Tossed everything that was TP-Link branded in my home to the dumpster..

 

[philb2]

TP-Link routers are undercutting much of the market. Stick with Netgear (US) or ASUS (Taiwan) for networking equipment, both non-Communist countries. China's objective is clear. Using open-source firmware additionally frees them up from any spying.

Nohing to do with Communism as a political philosophy and everthing to do with the name of the party/state.

 

[Lakados]

Which routers don't? Even Cisco products have been caught with back doors as Snowden points out. This is why I install OpenWRT on my routers because eventually there are no updates and my router can quickly become compromised.

Sadly OpenWRT isn't on the table for the average consumer, hell the average consumer isn't even likely to manually perform firmware updates.
Most just go to Walmart, Bestbuy, Staples, Costco, etc, buy a router follow whatever startup instructions they provide and off they go.

TP-Link has just routinely been shown to have blatant ones, just about every model has had a remote root PoC vulnerability since at least 2012, and it works in one form or another on all models including the 2024 ones

It is talked about first way back here, https://sekurak.pl/more-information-about-tp-link-backdoor/

It only requires the TP-Link router to have two things enabled to function, TFTP, and web admin, both which are enabled by default and even some 12 years later the exploit still functions on all TP-Link models.

 

[1.1.2.3.5...]

I think I was well overdue for creating my own router... Just picked up a midget PC for 117 bucks after taxes that I can build as a router/firewall machine. I was surprised to discover that the (11th gen ) N5095 was still Dual Channel. Can't argue for the price either, 16 GB of DDR4 in Dual Channel, 512 GB SSD, Quad Core 15 Watts https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CS6GGDR4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Should be decent or maybe I will swear the entire time setting it up and then throw it at my Chinese router, lol.

https://homenetworkguy.com/how-to/set-up-a-fully-functioning-home-network-using-opnsense/

I would put Opnsense on it. You can follow his guide. You can ignore setting up a lot of vlans if you want. Any small switch that can handle 802.11 vlans would be enough and then put the wifi antenna on one vlan and everything else on another. Or just have one big one. At the very least you can setup your own DNS on there with some good pi hole like black and white listings. Networking can be a huge pita.

I used to have the one linked below and it was okay, but I wanted more options. I might try to sell it here....not sure yet.
https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-RT-AC53...ocphy=9017966&hvtargid=pla-525794386221&psc=1

 

[kydsid]

Oh no, the Chinese are being capitalists. Quick, ban their products so we can keep prices high!

This. We opened up China by showing and teaching Capitalism. Now we have this shocked Picachu face that the state and society is unabashedly being Capitalists to the extreme. They don't think twice about stealing IP or falsifying quality controls or anything really in order to make a buck. Why do we continue to be suprised by this. Its capitalism at its extreme.

 

[Legendary Gamer]

https://homenetworkguy.com/how-to/set-up-a-fully-functioning-home-network-using-opnsense/

I would put Opnsense on it. You can follow his guide. You can ignore setting up a lot of vlans if you want. Any small switch that can handle 802.11 vlans would be enough and then put the wifi antenna on one vlan and everything else on another. Or just have one big one. At the very least you can setup your own DNS on there with some good pi hole like black and white listings. Networking can be a huge pita.

I used to have the one linked below and it was okay, but I wanted more options. I might try to sell it here....not sure yet.
https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-RT-AC53...ocphy=9017966&hvtargid=pla-525794386221&psc=1

TY!!!!!

Got a question, if I loaded OpenWrt on top of my TPLink router would that circumvent the issue? I want to at least try to use the damn thing as an access point if possible.

 

[1.1.2.3.5...]

TY!!!!!

Got a question, if I loaded OpenWrt on top of my TPLink router would that circumvent the issue? I want to at least try to use the damn thing as an access point if possible.

I would think so, but if you're super worried about it you can setup port mirroring and grab all the packets and do some digging.

Best option is a network tap and wireshark....which is a whole thing. This can be a rather deep rabbit hole, so be ready. Otherwise there might be some people that work professionally a corporate or government Security Operations Center (SOC) and they might have better advice. I do this as a hobby because I am paranoid and not a professional here (I worry mostly about controls and simulations of robotics). Point is, I can sort of figure things out, but there certainly better experts to get help on these questions.

https://www.amazon.com/Dualcomm-100...-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

There is a whole thread on picking routers and a subforum for asking these questions:
https://hardforum.com/threads/the-r...read-consumer.1226866/page-48#post-1046010080

They probably have better advice than I do.

 

[El_Capitan]

The U.S. Government just wants to make it clear, the only one who gets to steal from its citizens, is them.

 

[Lakados]

TY!!!!!

Got a question, if I loaded OpenWrt on top of my TPLink router would that circumvent the issue? I want to at least try to use the damn thing as an access point if possible.

IF you have a model of TPLink that OpenWRT supports then yes it would circumvent most of their known issues.

Though I'm not one to talk I am using UBNT hardware at home so... glass houses and all that.

 

[cjcox]

Idea: Instead of this, focus on not hiring members of CCP and China loyalists to all of our key executive offices in infrastructure, banking, government, etc.

It's like striving to save a pine needle when there's a forest fire we're fanning.

 

[1.1.2.3.5...]

As a staunch libertarian and free market capitalist, I have so many opinions and facts, but this would immediately devolve into political bickering. This isn't the place for it, so imma checkout of this debate.

 

[El_Capitan]

As a staunch libertarian and free market capitalist, I have so many opinions and facts, but this would immediately devolve into political bickering. This isn't the place for it, so imma checkout of this debate.

But isn't this a political topic concerning security and U.S. policies? I mean, the U.S. government spies on the American people, maybe they're more concerned they've now got competition?

 

[LOCO LAPTOP]

So I guess the Deco X95 Mesh I setup back in June isn't any good... First system that maxed out my 1gig fiber line over wifi.

I wonder if their TP-Link TL-SX1008 10gig dumb switch with their 10gig network card I got on Sunday also got back doors.

Just awesome.

I do have a PF Sense box blocking a bunch of traffic. Maybe I should just block all of China.

 

[Brackle]

But isn't this a political topic concerning security and U.S. policies? I mean, the U.S. government spies on the American people, maybe they're more concerned they've now got competition?

I mean lets be honest, the whole country knows they spy on us because everyone in the country has cell phones. I just dont care if they spy on me because I aint got nothing to hide.

If they wanna see all the meme's and me talking shit about my work so be it lol.

 

[1.1.2.3.5...]

But isn't this a political topic concerning security and U.S. policies? I mean, the U.S. government spies on the American people, maybe they're more concerned they've now got competition?

There's discussions of capitalism and communism and reasons for this and that.

Ensuing your information is protected is hard to do, and it seems all governments everywhere want a piece of it. The most basic assumption you can make is that you will be hacked and act accordingly.

I have encrypted files on my NAS and unencrypted and I even have some honey pot files I never touch and if touched I know something touched them and I should be worried.

But thats a lot of work. I don't have good advice. The number of cyber threats grows daily as does their sophistication.

My assumption is that there have been breaches of extremely sensitive data and it's probably happening to members of DoD or whatever agencies and they're being spied on through IoT devices like laundry machines or who knows.

 

[Vermillion]

China bad because they have a good product! BAN THEM! -.-

Just like banning TikTok for "security" is bullcrap. Let's see them stop Meta, Microsoft, or Google first who are all far worse than TikTok.

Look I get it and I understand the concern but for much of this it is unfounded and unnecessary. It's simply fear mongering.

And let's face it...American manufacturing just can't compete.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3...nk-routers-are-a-chinese-security-threat.html

So come Christmas day I'll happily install my three new TP-LINK EAP610 WAPs and Omada hardware controller on my home network and replace my current consumer mesh system with something far better.

 

[1.1.2.3.5...]

And let's face it...American manufacturing just can't compete.

must resist this debate!!!

 

[1.1.2.3.5...]

I do have a PF Sense box blocking a bunch of traffic. Maybe I should just block all of China.

That really won't do anything thing. They might have a US server on aws that forwards traffic.

 

[cjcox]

Yeah, not sure this thread can survive "the rules"... (unless the rules are really Chinese rules?)

 

[El_Capitan]

must resist this debate!!!

Lol!

I mean lets be honest, the whole country knows they spy on us because everyone in the country has cell phones. I just dont care if they spy on me because I aint got nothing to hide.

If they wanna see all the meme's and me talking shit about my work so be it lol.

I don't have anything to hide, either, but that they're spending time and money to spy or buy sensitive data, and who knows if they're selling them to some other country or organization, rather than focusing on more important matters seems something the public should have a say in.

 

[Lakados]

So I guess the Deco X95 Mesh I setup back in June isn't any good... First system that maxed out my 1gig fiber line over wifi.

I wonder if their TP-Link TL-SX1008 10gig dumb switch with their 10gig network card I got on Sunday also got back doors.

Just awesome.

I do have a PF Sense box blocking a bunch of traffic. Maybe I should just block all of China.

If you can, block all VPN entry/exit nodes that you aren't implicitly using.
Because you can run PFSense or Wireshark or any of that fun jazz and all you are going to see is some outgoing SSL traffic to an IP address or Amazon domain.
None of these things go to China directly, it's all going to show as encrypted SSL on 443, and unless you go full SSL decrypt the tools aren't going to show you much.