Netgear Patched the Air Force's Router Problem Two Years Ago

[Lucian Armasu]

Netgear said that the router vulnerabilities attackers exploited to steal Air Force drone documents had already been patched two years ago.

Netgear Patched the Air Force's Router Problem Two Years Ago : Read more

 

[drawingpin]

The updated firmware that Netgear came out with resulted in a lot of connection issues with their routers. They may not have applied this update for that reason. It's the reason why Netgear went back and I'm now using ASUS. Netgear know of the connection issues and have a beta update they'll supply you with when pushed.

 

[gggplaya]

The updated firmware that Netgear came out with resulted in a lot of connection issues with their routers. They may not have applied this update for that reason. It's the reason why Netgear went back and I'm now using ASUS. Netgear know of the connection issues and have a beta update they'll supply you with when pushed.

I've also dumped all my netgear equipment (NAS and routers), it used to be good, but now their software team is garbage.

I've since switched to QNAP for my NAS needs and Asus for my router needs. The ASUS router software is awesome, very stable and fast with great features. I'm very happy with it.

 

[genz]

The updated firmware that Netgear came out with resulted in a lot of connection issues with their routers. They may not have applied this update for that reason. It's the reason why Netgear went back and I'm now using ASUS. Netgear know of the connection issues and have a beta update they'll supply you with when pushed.

Never heard of the USAF using beta gear though haha

Now that would make for one hell of a drone party!

 

[digitalgriffin]

yep

Clearly the fault is on the gov't for this. But it's not surprising given the size of government infrastructure and lack of emphasis on security. What I'm more interested in is how classified control systems and data were on a public attached network?

BTW: I still would not turn on outside access for Netgear Consumer grade for maintenance, FTP, or VPN. There's a known flaw where passwords are transmitted encrypted, making them ripe for exploiting.

 

[Kewlx25]

My Netgear was good while it lasted, but after 5 years, the wifi started to get flaky. I went with pfSense + managed switch + ubiquiti AP. Everything has been rock solid. Over 1.3 years of uptime. pfSense technically has outstanding security fixes, but they only affect the services, which cannot by hit WAN side. If I can't trust my LAN, all is already lost.

 

[Lutfij]

The one and only gear from Netgear I've got is a WNDR3800 Premium Edition which is not premium at all. If you apply the latest firmware update, it sends anything you connect to it, to hell. If you're on the second last update, it's smooth as butter. It's miles below the RT-N56U I had from Asus's camp.

 

[10tacle]

I cannot believe the USAF, or any branch of the military for that matter, didn't/doesn't have a dedicated security team for protection of compromised data. They should have been testing backdoor breach access vulnerabilities, especially as they were using consumer grade off the shelf networking products instead of proprietary custom designed ones (yeah that means overpriced Mil-Spec).

 

[USAFRet]

I cannot believe the USAF, or any branch of the military for that matter, didn't/doesn't have a dedicated security team for protection of compromised data. They should have been testing backdoor breach access vulnerabilities, especially as they were using consumer grade off the shelf networking products instead of proprietary custom designed ones (yeah that means overpriced Mil-Spec).

Yes, there is a lot of commodity grade stuff. DoD does not design and build all their own routers.
Yes, there is a security team. Multiples of those.

Sometimes, fixing one exploit needs to be put off because the "fix" exposes others.

And right now, some group of clowns is getting yelled at (or worse) for this.

 

[10tacle]

My father worked on a rail gun project for the Air Force two decades ago and they figured it was more cost effective to power the gun with thousands of automotive batteries instead of a sustaining power generation unit. I also remember the USAF buying a bunch of Playstation 3 consoles for tying together and running a supercomputer of some sort. They do what they have to do with what they have available I suppose - especially money.

 

[USAFRet]

My father worked on a rail gun project for the Air Force two decades ago and they figured it was more cost effective to power the gun with thousands of automotive batteries instead of a sustaining power generation unit. I also remember the USAF buying a bunch of Playstation 3 consoles for tying together and running a supercomputer of some sort. They do what they have to do with what they have available I suppose - especially money.

1,760 PS3's.
https://phys.org/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomputer.html

Not because they were cheap or they were playstations...but because the chips did what was needed.

 

[kenjitamura]

If you're not using dd-wrt you're not interneting right.

 

[photonboy]

*Want a good laugh?
I was in the CANADIAN Navy. An Electronics Technician (Radar)... I noticed guys in the Ops room during a "brown out" drill (power loss) where going into one of the computer rooms and doing something...

After the drill they explained to me that they had developed an entire procedure of shut down, settings, startup (I forget the details) in concert with the other drills to workaround a "problem" they discovered of the system not working properly when starting up again...

This drill dated back several YEARS... after further investigation I discovered that the BATTERY had died years ago in a device that stored information (similar to a motherboard BIOS battery) so because they didn't have a battery at all they developed a procedure to re-input the proper settings after they restarted...

I took it on myself to find out what battery was needed, contacted Cryptography (they had them for some reason) who gave me one, then I told the OPS officer about it (he was happy) then I told my boss and...

He berated me... why did I not write this up in a Memorandum and submit the repair procedure through the proper chain of command?

(sadly one of many similar stories)

 

[emeraldsmines1990]

Why on earth is "drone documents" available online to begin with ? There is a huge difference between hacking a router , and accessing information that should never be available online to begin with.

more over , The military should have isolated internet communication and infrastructure .. I never guessed they are using the same internet we are using.

 

[USAFRet]

more over , The military should have isolated internet communication and infrastructure .. I never guessed they are using the same internet we are using.

There are multiple levels.
Some, the same internet as this.
Others, completely walled off.
Others, you need to give up your first born to access.