Security researchers discovered vulnerabilities in routers that attackers can exploit to integrate them into a bot network. A list shows affected routers from Telekom, Vodafone, and O2. If your router is among them, you should urgently take action now.
Why are routers becoming bots? By exploiting vulnerabilities, attackers gain access to areas of routers that typically require authentication. This affects routers from at least 13 providers spread across 11 countries.
Now it appears that the “hackers” taking advantage of these vulnerabilities are turning the routers into parts of a bot network.
Routers from Telekom, O2, Vodafone, and Asus affected
How does the attack work? Researchers from Tenable discovered the security gap CVE-2021-20090. It allows attackers to bypass the authentication of the web interface of routers. This also grants them access to devices within the home network or corporate network.
As reported by hothardware, attackers find a page of the router that is on a bypass list (via hothardware.com). However, anyone with a bit of skill can also append “/info.html” or other pages to the URL, as long as the bypass list option is at the beginning of the URL. This way, one can access pages that typically require authentication.
Who is attacking? Only a few days after the vulnerability was disclosed, Mounir Hahad and Alex Burt from Juniper Networks reported that attackers are already utilizing it (via juniper.net). They state, “Since August 5, we have identified several attack patterns attempting to exploit this vulnerability from an IP address in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.”
These active exploitation attempts seem to be aiming to deploy a variant of the Mirai botnet on the vulnerable routers.
The list of potentially vulnerable routers is from Tenable (via Tenable.com):
What you can do if your router is affected
This is how you can secure yourself: If your router is on the list above, you can contact your internet service provider or the router manufacturer. They can explain how to patch the vulnerability. There may already be a firmware update for your device that fixes this security flaw.
Is your router affected by the new security vulnerability? If not, you can calmly prepare for the future of your PC. Because “Windows 11” is already on everyone’s lips. The new operating system is expected to be released later this year.
Read here on MeinMMO about the 5 things you need to know about Windows 11. This way, you will be optimally prepared when you want to update your PC.
