As reported by "USA Today" and Many other news outlets over the last few days,

The usa "FBI" and many other country authorities too including here in Aus, have reported the same.

"13 Old Internet Routers Are Vulnerable To Attacks".

Please Note: We have heard that ones with OpenWRT firmware are not Vulnerable to this

This effects Cisco & Linksys Devices with model Numbers:

  • E100
  • E300
  • E1000
  • E1200
  • E1500
  • E1550
  • E2500
  • E3200
  • E4200
  • M10
  • WRT310N
  • WRT320N
  • WRT610N

linksys

The remote administration feature that comes pre-installed on these routers is the major source of vulnerability.

Hackers have become familiar with accessing outdated remote management software, allowing them to install their own software that gives them perpetual access to your Device and even your Network.

Even if the remote administration feature of your router is password protected, threat actors can still easily get in. The installed malware then allows them to communicate with the router periodically, ensuring continued access

Tho they state "Users can also disable remote administration and reboot their routers to cut off this primary access point" if the hacker has already got in to it then this option will not stop it.

It is said the Hacker uploads a few files to the router and from there they have all the access they want even allowing others to use your service to to hide from the Authorities

For the ones that know a bit about the device's and the files, these extra files like this :

linksys2

 

Again from reports "OpenWRT firmware" is not effected.

 

The quickest fix is to just replace the router with an upto date newer one, but for the people out there that do use these watch out.