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Techie Or Suggestions / Potentially serious security hole in your router
« on: December 09, 2013, 02:42:32 PM »
Hi all
I thought I would share with u all my recent discovery of a security problem that your router may have, leaving you wide open to all sorts of problems.
To give you a brief description of the problem here goes,
To make it easy for consumers to connect new devices to there network, or indeed a computer, there is a piece of software called UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) now what this software does is talk to the new device that you have just connected and says to the new device what changes do u want me to make, so the new device will work, UPnp then proceeds to make the changes requested and when the changes have been made you will normally get a little pop up on you PC your new device is ready to use, now if you run security software u will mot likely get a pop up asking if you want to allow the changes, if u do not run security software then all u will get is the pop up after the changes have been made telling you your new device is ready to use.
At this point I along with you think great that was easy to set up and away we go using our shiny new device, camera, mouse, web cam etc.
Well it turns out that this software UPnP was originally written to support a research paper that was illustrating how UPnP might be achieved some 15 to 20 years ago, and to make the UPnP software concise and easy to see what it was doing ABOSLUTLY NO SECURITY OF ANY DESCRIPTION WAS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Now to the real point of my post, your router which of course is your point of contact with the World Wide Web internet, out there on the internet there are lots of people checking your router to see if the door is open.
Most routers today will have UPnP installed on it facing your local network and inaccessible to the internet, this allows the likes of Xbox or other new network device that need to access the internet to connect to your network and change the settings on your router to enable the Xbox etc to work, and we all think great easy peasy I can go get em.
So some router manufactures either by design or by mistake have made UPnP available on the internet side of the router as well, remember that UPnP has ABOSLUTLY NO SECURITY OF ANY DESCRIPTION.
Now routers are the main target for internet hackers but any device connected to you network is likely to have UPnP and if it can be accessed from the internet it would be possible to change settings on your router allowing potential villains into your network.
I have 2 suggestions as follows
Login to your router and turn of UPnP
and visit the website below to do a check, the website will check to see if you have UPnP open to the internet, I have been using this website for years on and off to check my exposure to the internet, the site is run by a reputable security expert Steve Gibson, the site will not install any software on your computer, all the site does is probe your router and report back.
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?rh1dkyd2
Follow the link and click GRC Instant UpnP Exposure Test.
In case you are wondering what's in it for me, well the answer is absolutely nothing I bring you this post in the hope that it will make your computing activities a little more secure, feel free to google Upnp exploit etc
And if you think well I have just got a new router I will be fine, a scan of the IP addresses in the IPV4 range which is some 2 billion addresses some 81 million were found to be exposing UPnP to the internet, and 1700 to 2000 equipment manufactures were or still are selling equipment with this as a security issue.
If you are thinking that well I am 1 amongst 2 billion it will be unlikely they will find me, then think again the people that scanned the 2 billion IP addresses were scanning all 2 billion on about a 2 week cycle.
Now I am no security expert far from it, I am just a budding computer geek, with a little knowledge and u know what the say about that
So do the check and take remedial action if you need to before a some internet scumbag checks router door and finds it open an comes in and helps themselves to you personal data or whatever else they fancy doing.
PS: I checked my BT router using the above site and found a management port open on the router, and it was impossible to close the port, so I put my hand in my pocket an purchased my own router that I have full control over, needless to say the port is not open now.
I thought I would share with u all my recent discovery of a security problem that your router may have, leaving you wide open to all sorts of problems.
To give you a brief description of the problem here goes,
To make it easy for consumers to connect new devices to there network, or indeed a computer, there is a piece of software called UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) now what this software does is talk to the new device that you have just connected and says to the new device what changes do u want me to make, so the new device will work, UPnp then proceeds to make the changes requested and when the changes have been made you will normally get a little pop up on you PC your new device is ready to use, now if you run security software u will mot likely get a pop up asking if you want to allow the changes, if u do not run security software then all u will get is the pop up after the changes have been made telling you your new device is ready to use.
At this point I along with you think great that was easy to set up and away we go using our shiny new device, camera, mouse, web cam etc.
Well it turns out that this software UPnP was originally written to support a research paper that was illustrating how UPnP might be achieved some 15 to 20 years ago, and to make the UPnP software concise and easy to see what it was doing ABOSLUTLY NO SECURITY OF ANY DESCRIPTION WAS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Now to the real point of my post, your router which of course is your point of contact with the World Wide Web internet, out there on the internet there are lots of people checking your router to see if the door is open.
Most routers today will have UPnP installed on it facing your local network and inaccessible to the internet, this allows the likes of Xbox or other new network device that need to access the internet to connect to your network and change the settings on your router to enable the Xbox etc to work, and we all think great easy peasy I can go get em.
So some router manufactures either by design or by mistake have made UPnP available on the internet side of the router as well, remember that UPnP has ABOSLUTLY NO SECURITY OF ANY DESCRIPTION.
Now routers are the main target for internet hackers but any device connected to you network is likely to have UPnP and if it can be accessed from the internet it would be possible to change settings on your router allowing potential villains into your network.
I have 2 suggestions as follows
Login to your router and turn of UPnP
and visit the website below to do a check, the website will check to see if you have UPnP open to the internet, I have been using this website for years on and off to check my exposure to the internet, the site is run by a reputable security expert Steve Gibson, the site will not install any software on your computer, all the site does is probe your router and report back.
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?rh1dkyd2
Follow the link and click GRC Instant UpnP Exposure Test.
In case you are wondering what's in it for me, well the answer is absolutely nothing I bring you this post in the hope that it will make your computing activities a little more secure, feel free to google Upnp exploit etc
And if you think well I have just got a new router I will be fine, a scan of the IP addresses in the IPV4 range which is some 2 billion addresses some 81 million were found to be exposing UPnP to the internet, and 1700 to 2000 equipment manufactures were or still are selling equipment with this as a security issue.
If you are thinking that well I am 1 amongst 2 billion it will be unlikely they will find me, then think again the people that scanned the 2 billion IP addresses were scanning all 2 billion on about a 2 week cycle.
Now I am no security expert far from it, I am just a budding computer geek, with a little knowledge and u know what the say about that
So do the check and take remedial action if you need to before a some internet scumbag checks router door and finds it open an comes in and helps themselves to you personal data or whatever else they fancy doing.
PS: I checked my BT router using the above site and found a management port open on the router, and it was impossible to close the port, so I put my hand in my pocket an purchased my own router that I have full control over, needless to say the port is not open now.