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Hackaday sounds the alarm and along with ThinkPenguin, the EFF, FSF, Software Freedom Law Center, Software Freedom Conservancy, OpenWRT, LibreCMC, Qualcomm, and others have created the SaveWiFi campaign (archive.is capture, real link is at this overloaded server) , providing instructions on how to submit a formal complaint to the FCC regarding this proposed rule. The comment period is closing on September 8, 2015.
From Hackaday:
Under the rule proposed by the FCC, devices with radios may be required to prevent modifications to firmware. All devices operating in the 5GHz WiFi spectrum will be forced to implement security features to ensure the radios cannot be modified. While prohibiting the modification of transmitters has been a mainstay of FCC regulation for 80 years, the law of unintended consequences will inevitably show up in full force: because of the incredible integration of electronic devices, this proposed regulation may apply to everything from WiFi routers to cell phones. The proposed regulation would specifically ban router firmwares such as DD-WRT, and may go so far as to include custom firmware on your Android smartphone.
A lot is on the line. The freedom to modify devices you own is a concern, but the proposed rules prohibiting new device firmware would do much more damage. The economic impact would be dire, the security implications would be extreme, and emergency preparedness would be greatly hindered by the proposed restrictions on router firmware. The FCC is taking complaints and suggestions until September 8th.
Leave a comment for the FCC via this link to the Federal Register
(Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 03 2015, @04:08PM
More info that should take some of the worry away here:
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20150831/07164532118/no-fcc-is-not-intentionally-trying-to-kill-third-party-wi-fi-router-firmware.shtml [techdirt.com]
Yes, some of it is just analysis but there is new information as well.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Jiro on Thursday September 03 2015, @04:11PM
"Not intentionally killing firmware" is not the same thing as "not doing something that will have the effect of killing firmware". Manufacturers aren't going to respond to this by allowing firmware changes and just preventing the radio part from being modified, because it's more efficient for the manufacturer to control the radio part using the general purpose device that is used for everything else, and lock down the general purpose device.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday September 03 2015, @04:18PM
Yep. The problem is that the manufacturers don't differentiate the firmware that controls the radio from the rest of the router. This is why you can do things with open firmware like enable foreign channels or increase power output for the radio beyond what the FCC allows. It's easier for them to just do it all in one package. Since they have no reason to care about allowing third party firmware to run on their devices I can't see them changing they way they do this anytime soon.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday September 03 2015, @11:07PM
They're may be good damn reason why the manufacturers would either complain, or differentiate the firmware into two separate sections.
Anything commercial in origin *requires* the ability to modify it, just to use it.
In other words, major commercial manufacturers of radios will completely fuck themselves proper with their paying clients, should shell access be removed. Not just that, but should root access to the shell be removed. Unless you have a separate firmware for the radio (like I remember with my first smartphone) how can we possibly use the device for our business purposes?
Ohhhh, you mean that we are now completely limited to whatever the manufacturer put into an API or web based GUI we can somehow keep the status quo?
Nope. Businesses either will have access to that firmware to modify it, or they will engage in contracts to obtain hardware they can properly develop and manage. I can't possibly see a manufacturer enjoying a $20 million procurement contract for radios in which the corporation paying the $20 million suffers such ridiculous restrictions.
DD-WRT may be a quite popular modification in the consumer market for firmware, but in the commercial markets access to firmware and the ability to modify it is crucial. I have to laugh as I know of a dozen engineers designing custom firmware for radios for WISPs. Guess they're all out of jobs?
Speaking of that, I'm currently working on some management features for a few radios. Guess I'm shit-out-of-luck too.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Friday September 04 2015, @11:24AM
First, the requirements go much farther than "er, like DD-WRT, and stuff". They present a link to the DD-WRT site, explicitly demand that this be excluded, and then further suggest that the securing people work within the context of RFC2828 to implement X.800. Then they lower themselves to laymans terms and explain that so called "flashing" must be inhibited. That definitely is not "slopply engineer wording" as the techdirt blog says.
The FCC reply seems already illogical within two sentences: 1.) Our rules .. permit radios ... where the ... secure software ... cannot be modified. 2.) versions of ... software can be used as long as they do not add the functionality to modify ... RF .. .
The only way this logic resolves is entirely contrary to how the second sentence sounds. The weather radar issue is a complete strawman excuse they prepared for the expected shitstorm. These modifications are already illegal and someone who wants to stay illegal will get their outlaw gear from ebay. On the other hand, someone who goes to mentioned detail in describing how to lock out free software, knows what he is doing.
This also goes together with a nice european directive ("2014/53/EU") that has nothing to do with the FAA and their happy weather forecast and was put in place so silently that it slipped neatly under the radar of anyone concerned with the topic.