Malware turns home routers into proxies for Chinese state-sponsored hackers
Researchers have uncovered malicious firmware that can turn residential and small office routers into proxies for Chinese state-sponsored hackers. The firmware implant, discovered by Check Point Research, includes a full-featured backdoor that allows attackers to establish communication, issue commands, and perform file transfers with infected devices. The implant was found in TP-Link routers but could be modified to work on other router models.
The malware's main purpose is to relay traffic between infected targets and command-and-control servers, obscuring the origins and destinations of the communication. The control infrastructure was traced back to hackers associated with the Chinese government. By using a chain of infected devices, the attackers can hide the final command and control and make it difficult for defenders to detect and respond to the attack.
This technique of using routers and other IoT devices as proxies is a common tactic among threat actors. The researchers are unsure how the implant is installed on devices but suspect it could be through exploiting vulnerabilities or weak administrative credentials.
While the firmware image discovered so far only affects TP-Link devices, the modular design allows the threat actors to create images for a wider range of hardware. The article concludes with recommendations for users to check for potential infections and apply proactive mitigations such as patching routers and using strong passwords.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19, @11:59PM
Time to change my password from "admin" to 1234567. They'll never think of that. /sarcasm.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday May 20, @01:38AM (1 child)
I hope they haven't infected DD-WRT yet! You decide how much sarcasm should apply here, since open source projects are seeing security problems of their own.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday May 20, @10:18AM
I have a pile of vulnerable Zyxel ADSL/XDSL modems which are built on crippled dd-wrt by design, no password needed to hack that ones.
Don't think TP-Link any better.
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pTamok on Saturday May 20, @08:15AM (5 children)
I administer some TP-Link routers where I have replaced the firmware with non TP-Link firmware.
I see many login attempts over ssh coming from Chinese addresses. It's irritating as they fill up the logs. The average home user doesn't stand a chance.
I really ought to install BanIP, and also keep a collection of attempted passwords, although they are probably just cycling through the most popular.
(Score: 5, Informative) by shrewdsheep on Saturday May 20, @08:58AM (1 child)
Best practices suggest that external ssh login into the router should be disabled, as in blocked by the firewall. I always configure routers from behind the firewall. If you do administrative work for others I understand that there might not be an internal node to work from. However, this would be just be a Rasperry Pi (Zero) with minimal energy overhead.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Monday May 22, @09:33AM
Point taken Re: best practices - and you are correct, internal nodes are not possible.
Sometimes you have to do the best of a bad job handed to you. The passwords are high-entropy (generated by some audited code), so unlikely to be guessed. There is more likely to be a vulnerability in the underlying OS and/or firmware that can be exploited.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21, @03:51AM (1 child)
Basic system setup for me is fail2ban, key-based logins only, and ideally run the SSH server on a non-standard port.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Monday May 22, @09:36AM
Sounds good.
Key/certificate-based logins can be a mixed blessing, especially when trying to keep administrative overheads manageable. When used well, they can be excellent.
(Score: 2) by corey on Sunday May 21, @11:49PM
It’s thin but possible: TP-Link are Chinese so this might be a feature, not a bug. I don’t run any TP Link gear, even though it’s always cheaper than others eg. Netgear. However I do use a Huawei router for my 4G because at the time they were per much the only one I could get that did Cat 19 LTE.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20, @09:35AM (1 child)
How are Check Point so sure they're from the Chinese Gov? There are lots of non-Gov Chinese people doing illegal or dubious stuff to make money... And building botnets could be one of them.
On stuff that I administer, on the firewall logs I see a lot of attempts from Digital Ocean. But I don't claim they're from US Gov sponsored hackers...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20, @02:38PM
Easy to discover. Log the router requests, trace back the IPs. Eventually you can get through the layers to find where someone is coming from. Or, let them in and see what they do. Make a router into a honeypot.