Millions of routers vulnerable to hack attack - Is yours?

Borg 386 · Jul 19, 2010

According to security researcher Craig Heffner, about half the existing models of home routers, including most Linksys, Dell, and Verizon, are vulnerable to being hacked.

Read More:

Millions of routers vulnerable to hack attack - Is yours? | ZDNet

“Millions” Of Home Routers Vulnerable To Web Hack « The Firewall - Forbes.com

The hack relies on tricking people to visit a malicious website. From that point on, the router itself can be hijacked and the poor user redirected pretty much anywhere the hacker wants them to go. The hack relies on a hack known as “DNS rebinding,” something that has been around for nearly 15 years.

Heffner has tested 30 routers and found about half of them to be vulnerable, through a combination of either a software flaw or a weak settings password.

Think you’re safe because you use OpenDNS or Firefox NoScript plug-in? Think again! According to Heffner, this doesn’t offer any protection.

So, what to do if your router is vulnerable? Well, check for updates, but if they’re not forthcoming, buy a new one. Oh, and change those default passwords, every hackers knows them!

JonM33 · Jul 19, 2010

Weak/default passwords are always a given but the chances of a hacker wasting his time trying to hack through the internet to someone's personal computer are slim to none. Besides, on most home routers the remote management is disabled by default.

Corrine · Jul 19, 2010

No "weak settings password" here. According to a variation of my 30-character mixed up router password at How Secure Is My Password?

It would take
About 7,732,087,003 nonillion years
for a desktop PC to crack your password

JonM33 · Jul 19, 2010

Corrine said:
No "weak settings password" here. According to a variation of my 30-character mixed up router password at How Secure Is My Password?

It would take
About 7,732,087,003 nonillion years
for a desktop PC to crack your password

Click to expand...

Nice! But I use this for my WPA2 wireless password: https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

63 character (a-z, A-Z, 0-9) randomly generated and nobody will ever be able to crack it.

Corrine · Jul 19, 2010

The problem with that, JonM33, is that I wouldn't be able to get past it myself if I needed to.

JonM33 · Jul 19, 2010

Corrine said:
The problem with that, JonM33, is that I wouldn't be able to get past it myself if I needed to.

Heh heh, but neither can anyone else.

I just copy and paste it into Notepad and stick it on a USB flash drive. When I need to add a computer to my wireless network (rarely) I just open the TXT file and copy and paste it.

Corrine · Jul 19, 2010

Good way to handle it -- for you. I can visualize myself trying to remember which USB stick had the password. :cry:

Borg 386 · Jul 19, 2010

Well Corrine, you can always do like this one lady in class did, she gave all her USB sticks names

Corrine · Jul 19, 2010

:roflmao:

The Howling Wolves · Jul 19, 2010

Another way Corrine, is to buy different colored ones for different computers.
Like you do with you supply of shoes, purses, and ( well I better stop there if I want to stay on here)!

JonM33 · Jul 19, 2010

Corrine said:
Good way to handle it -- for you. I can visualize myself trying to remember which USB stick had the password.

Then put the TXT file on all of them. It will be a whopping 63 bytes in size. I am sure each thumb drive will have the space.

Corrine · Jul 19, 2010

The Howling Wolves said:
Another way Corrine, is to buy different colored ones for different computers.
Like you do with you supply of shoes, purses, and ( well I better stop there if I want to stay on here)!

I'd still need to locate the them. As to the shoes/purses equation, that wouldn't work here. I'm not a shopper, have one purse (3 or 4 years old) and probably have more USB sticks than I have pairs of shoes.

JonM33 said:
Corrine said:

Good way to handle it -- for you. I can visualize myself trying to remember which USB stick had the password.

Click to expand...

Then put the TXT file on all of them. It will be a whopping 63 bytes in size. I am sure each thumb drive will have the space.

I was teasing. Your suggestion is a good idea and may indeed work for someone needing this solution.

The Howling Wolves · Jul 19, 2010

Corrine said:
The Howling Wolves said:

Another way Corrine, is to buy different colored ones for different computers.
Like you do with you supply of shoes, purses, and ( well I better stop there if I want to stay on here)!

Click to expand...

I'd still need to locate the them. As to the shoes/purses equation, that wouldn't work here. I'm not a shopper, have one purse (3 or 4 years old) and probably have more USB sticks than I have pairs of shoes.

JonM33 said:

Corrine said:

Good way to handle it -- for you. I can visualize myself trying to remember which USB stick had the password.

Click to expand...

Then put the TXT file on all of them. It will be a whopping 63 bytes in size. I am sure each thumb drive will have the space.

Click to expand...

I was teasing. Your suggestion is a good idea and may indeed work for someone needing this solution.

Corrine,
I would have lost my behind on betting you had more shoes and purses than that.
I took the test and it would take a hacker 117 days to crack mine so I guess I better think of a better one.........right now it's "PassWord":roflmao: just joking of course.

Everlong · Jul 19, 2010

My WPA2 key is too long to enter in that box lol.

Dave76 · Jul 19, 2010

Corrine said:
No "weak settings password" here. According to a variation of my 30-character mixed up router password at How Secure Is My Password?

It would take
About 7,732,087,003 nonillion years
for a desktop PC to crack your password

Click to expand...

Nice link, thanks Corrine, this will be an excellent eye opener for people.

polarbear · Jul 19, 2010

Everlong said:
My WPA2 key is too long to enter in that box lol.

Guess no use wasting my time hacking your WPA2 then... hehe

Borg 386 · Jul 20, 2010

Corrine,

My wife says she's going to paint her USB drives with different colors of nail polish to keep track of them.....:huh:

There's an idea??????

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