Asus Patches Firmware Security Vulnerability

It is not uncommon for vendors to give security advisories. This time however, it appears a hacker gave at least one victim an unexpected heads up.

According to Ars Technica, a user of an Asus router uncovered a text file on his external hard drive. The message read as follows: “This is an automated message being sent out to everyone effected. Your Asus router (and your documents) can be accessed by anyone in the world with an Internet connection.”

The note also instructed the user to read information on how to protect against the attack, which took advantage of a vulnerability uncovered last year by researcher Kyle Lovett. According to Lovett, the issue allows hackers to “traverse to any external storage plugged in through the USB ports on the back of the router.”

Asus did not respond to a request for comment on the issue. However, Softpedia reported that the vulnerability was addressed last week in a firmware update by Asus.

Earlier this month, a list of nearly 13,000 IP addresses reportedly tied to the vulnerable routers was posted on the Internet. The list contained the names of files stored on the hard drives of impacted users have been published as well.

The list of impacted routers includes RT-N66U, RT-N66R, RT-AC56U, RT-N56R, RT-N56U, RT-N14U, RT-N16, RT-N16R, RT-AC66R and RT-AC66U. More information about the updates for each model can be found here.

Just recently, researchers at the SANS Institute warned about a worm exploiting a vulnerability in several Linksys routers. The worm, dubbed ‘TheMoon’, takes advantage of a flaw that has since been patched by Linksys. Users are advised to apply the relevant updates.