Taiwan-based networking and storage solutions provider Synology has informed customers about the availability of patches for several critical vulnerabilities, including flaws likely exploited recently at the Pwn2Own hacking contest.
The company published two new critical advisories in late December. One of them describes an internally discovered vulnerability affecting Synology VPN Plus Server, which turns routers into an advanced VPN server.
The security hole, tracked as CVE-2022-43931, is an out-of-bounds write issue in the remote desktop functionality of VPN Plus Server. It can allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands.
The second advisory describes multiple vulnerabilities impacting the Synology Router Manager (SRM), the operating system that powers the firm’s routers. The flaws can be exploited for arbitrary command execution, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and reading arbitrary files.
The SRM advisory credits several people and companies for reporting the vulnerabilities, including Gaurav Baruah and Computest. They disclosed the issues through Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI).
This suggests that the vulnerabilities were demonstrated at the Pwn2Own Toronto 2022 hacking contest, which took place December 6-9. Participants earned nearly $1 million for exploits targeting smartphones, printers, routers, NAS devices, and smart speakers.
Baruah earned $20,000 for a command injection exploit against a Synology RT6600ax router’s WAN interface, while Computest earned $5,000 for a root shell attack targeting the device’s LAN interface.
At Pwn2Own, participants earned a total of more than $80,000 for hacking Synology routers and NAS devices, in addition to tens of thousands of dollars for chained exploits that targeted one Synology device and a second target.
Related: Synology, QNAP, WD Warn Users About Vulnerabilities Exploited at Hacking Contest
Related: ‘Raspberry Robin’ Windows Worm Abuses QNAP Devices
Related: QNAP Urges Users to Secure NAS Devices as Attacks Surge

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
More from Eduard Kovacs
- Industry Reactions to Hive Ransomware Takedown: Feedback Friday
- US Reiterates $10 Million Reward Offer After Disruption of Hive Ransomware
- Hive Ransomware Operation Shut Down by Law Enforcement
- UK Gov Warns of Phishing Attacks Launched by Iranian, Russian Cyberspies
- Dozens of Cybersecurity Companies Announced Layoffs in Past Year
- Security Update for Chrome 109 Patches 6 Vulnerabilities
- New Open Source OT Security Tool Helps Address Impact of Upcoming Microsoft Patch
- Forward Networks Raises $50 Million in Series D Funding
Latest News
- Critical Vulnerability Impacts Over 120 Lexmark Printers
- BIND Updates Patch High-Severity, Remotely Exploitable DoS Flaws
- Industry Reactions to Hive Ransomware Takedown: Feedback Friday
- Microsoft Urges Customers to Patch Exchange Servers
- Iranian APT Leaks Data From Saudi Arabia Government Under New Persona
- US Reiterates $10 Million Reward Offer After Disruption of Hive Ransomware
- Cyberattacks Target Websites of German Airports, Admin
- US Infiltrates Big Ransomware Gang: ‘We Hacked the Hackers’
