Complete, Persistent Compromise of Netgear Wireless Routers

This, along with bufferbloat [1], is why you run OpenWRT or another similarly modern, fully open source distro on your home routers.<p>Right now, the best supported devices are ath9k&#x27;s, so things like the Buffalo WZR-* models are ideal.<p>The WNDR 4700 model specifically doesn&#x27;t have good support for 3rd party firmware [2] due to it&#x27;s use of NAND flash in an unsupported manner, so if you have that model you&#x27;re kind of sunk at this point.<p>1. <a href="http://www.bufferbloat.net" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bufferbloat.net</a><p>2. <a href="http://wikidevi.com/wiki/Netgear_WNDR4700" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;wikidevi.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Netgear_WNDR4700</a>

I have a WNDR 4700 and I can&#x27;t replicate as described. However, I&#x27;ve also never trusted the stupid thing since it stores passwords in clear text (or at least is happy to display them in clear text on one of its admin pages).

One alternative to underpowered routers running OpenWRT or pfsense is to use a beaglebone black as your router. It&#x27;s got well-supported wifi devices with antennae available, and you&#x27;re not compromising on clock or ram.

Exploit doesn&#x27;t appear to work on a WNDR3700v2. I&#x27;m hoping it doesn&#x27;t, as this has been the only router I&#x27;ve ever liked after years of dealing with complete garbage.

If you have a Netgear WNDR3700v2 or a WNDR3800, check out Cerowrt [1]. The latest stable build, 3.7.5-2, has been <i>exceptionally</i> stable for me, and fast. I would highly recommend it.<p>1. <a href="http://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/cerowrt" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bufferbloat.net&#x2F;projects&#x2F;cerowrt</a>

So has anyone used any of the open hardware alternatives, like routerboard.com ? Seems like having the schematics and the firmware would be a reasonable place to be.

This post, and other recent ones like it, indicate to me the importance of running a port scan and making sure no management abilities are exposed over the WAN side of these devices. Any suggestions on good, fast online port scanners?

Question: I have Cable internet here in Aus (100mb&#x2F;10mb) and I like my connection, but we have to use Telstra&#x27;s silly modem, and they refused to activate any other one on the network.<p>So, lets assume I don&#x27;t trust this AP and Modem to be secure (fair enough assumption in my opinion) -- the best way would be to perhaps build my own Wireless AP running pfsense, on a BeagleBone Black or similar?<p><pre><code> Cable -&gt; Telstra Modem w&#x2F;out Wireless -&gt; pfsense AP -&gt; Network </code></pre> Would that be the most secure way to handle that situation?

Do companies like Netgear not have a team whose only purpose is to try to break their own products? I thought that was a primary source of employment for infosec types.

Ah, this just illustrates how much hardware companies suck at building software.

I like that this was technical and informative, but still talked down to people like me who aren&#x27;t at all knowledgable with how infosec works. Great read; wish I could find more like it.