Breaking down the Asus router bug

Tuesday I wrote about an apparent bug in the ASUS RT-AC66R and RT-AC66U routers that prevents them from recognizing a new firmware version is available. After investigating further, the root cause turned out to be a simple matter of ASUS not updating the file on their live updates server that reports the latest firmware for each router model. Depending on the specific model, ASUS wireless routers download a text file (strangely labeled as a zip file) from http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/LiveUpdate/Release/Wireless or /Wireless_SQ. This file lists all supported models of router, along with the latest firmware version for each. These files appear to have not been updated since October 9, 2013, the date of the 3.0.0.4.374.979 firmware release.

How much do you know about your home router?

Bottom Line Up Front: If you own an Asus router, update the firmware immediately. Do not rely on the firmware check function built into the router – go to support.asus.com and find the latest firmware version available for your model of router.

Yesterday afternoon, Ars Technica published an article about a “white hat” hacking incident. Certain Asus routers have a vulnerability in the AiCloud service (Asus’ proprietary web service, which enables FTP and Samba/ file sharing, among other things) whereby an unauthenticated user from the Internet could gain access to hard drives connected to the USB port on the router, either to read data off the drive, or write new data to the drive. This vulnerability was in fact reported last June, but not fixed by the vendor until last week.

The Ars Technica article describes an unsuspecting user finding an unexpected text file on his hard drive, a text file describing the flaw and calling Asus out for not fixing it 8 months after responsible disclosure.

Been "Targeted?"

It's been a while since I blogged ... amazing how life gets in the way sometimes. Today I want to talk for a bit about the Target data breach that happened last November and December. I won't spend too much time on the technical details (several others have done an outstanding job on that front). Instead, I'll look at it from the "what now?" point of view.

Some background is in order though. Around December 12, 2013, the US Justice Department alerted Target that credit cards used at Target stores were subsequently being used fraudulently. By December 15, Target confirmed the "possibility" of a data breach. After substantial forensic work, a few things are becoming known.