Question Shortcomings of an older D-Link DIR-655 router ?

[emophil]

hello

I am helping an elderly neighbor with some computer tech items.

While helping my neighbor I noticed that they have an older D-LINK DIR-655 router.

My first question is what is vulnerable with this model, the wired connection, the wireless connection or both?

The elderly couple has a desktop pc that is hard wired into the back of the router with an ethernet cable.

They just use the wifi for their roku tv and iphone.

Where are the weak spots and should I run out and buy them an new router asap?

 

[Lutfij]

https://www.fortinet.com/blog/threat-research/d-link-routers-found-vulnerable-rce

D-Link Technical Support

supportannouncement.us.dlink.com

Here is a directory for firmwares corresponding to the Rev # for the router;
https://legacyfiles.us.dlink.com/DIR-655
along those lines, what revision of the router do your neighbors have?

I would opt for a new router, IMHO, if a firmware update is not possible.

 

[emophil]

https://www.fortinet.com/blog/threat-research/d-link-routers-found-vulnerable-rce

D-Link Technical Support

supportannouncement.us.dlink.com

Here is a directory for firmwares corresponding to the Rev # for the router;
https://legacyfiles.us.dlink.com/DIR-655
along those lines, what revision of the router do your neighbors have?

I would opt for a new router, IMHO, if a firmware update is not possible.

thanks for the reply

I am not sure if it is version A B or C, but considering how old it is does it really matter? I am not sure of the dates of the latest firware but say they are over 10 years old.

where is the compromise or short coming of an older router? What is exposed? The wifi? Or are the wired connections also at risk

trying to understand where the weak spots are

if I do get a new modem for them what should I look for?

again just basic use for retired seniors.

 

[bill001g]

People worry too much about some theoretical hacking. A lot of that is the manufactures also pushing it as a way to get people to spend more money. Kinda like the car manufactures that lobby for all the safety devices on cars saying it might save 1 child as a shield to their money grabbing. If you say anything against it you are a child killer.

In a way the older stupid routers are somewhat safer. The software is much more simple and has fewer features that might have bugs in them.

I worry much more about the new routers that have all the cloud management features. This means there is a large part that is out of your control and if someone would hack the central servers they compromise every ones devices. Older routers many times can not even update the configurations via wifi. Many of the new devices have wifi admin access out of the box, this is for all the new generation that think everything can be done on a 5 inch phone screen and they don't have a actual computer.

You also have to not worry about attacks that assume someone already has compromised physical access. Do I really worry about someone hacking my computers and routers if they already can come into my house and steal stuff.

In general the main exposure is the wifi. The main issue with talking about any wifi bugs is someone has to be sitting out front of your house to be able to access the wifi signals.

The only true exposure in wifi is a feature that should not even be included on any router but again the manufactures ignore customer safety when it affects the money they can make. There is a feature called WPS that is on by default in many routers. This feature allows someone to use a simple 8 digit number to bypass the most complex SSID passwords. Again this is a feature for those who are lazy and can't be bothered to type in a password. It is also required for all the "smart?" devices like lightbulbs that have no ability to manually set id and passwords.

Wifi hacking is mostly the neighbor teen whose parent filter their internet access and they use the nieghbors wifi instead. Good passwords and making sure WPS is disabled should be all it takes to keep you protected from anyone other than the government van parked in front of your house.

Althought that router is very old it has gigabit wan and lan ports. This means it support very fast intenet. Not sure I would run it on gigabit plans but 300-500 should be no issues. If it is new enough to have the hardware accelated NAT feature it might actually run full gigabit speeds using ethernet.

I really really hate the constant updates on software. If they only put out true bug fixes on say windows it would less a issue. They unfortantly bury 1 bug fix in 50 new features that in the next update have new bugs.