I think my router has been hacked?

Jonboy_1984

My Netgear that has recently been replaced just needed two buttons held down together to reset. The instructions where printed on the bottom of the router...

kwikbreaks

A regular complaint about the Virgin Media Superhub was that it would frequently reset to factory settings. Three guesses who makes the VM Superhub...

esuhl

buglawton wrote: »

Wow a router that goes back to factory settings on the slightest reset! Highly insecure.
Seems impossible, they usually require a paper clip to be inserted and the reset button kept held down for many seconds.

Seems impossible?! Don't you believe me?! I quite thoroughly tested my Netgear router to confirm that the device reset the router to factory settings (including enabling the wireless access point and removing wi-fi security). It ONLY occurred when the video-sender was turned on, NEVER occurred when I stopped using the video-sender, AND the video-sender appeared as a bizarrely-named wireless network in InSSIDer.

It occurred to me that, if someone could connect the video-sender to a portable power source, they could probably wander outside my house, using the video-sender to reset the router and gain access to the network for sending spam or whatever nefarious activities they had in mind... and it would all be traced to an innocent person's Internet account. Thanks, Netgear.

Still, at least the Netgear had a nice web-server interface. The ones in my (ISP supplied) Thomson/Technicolor routers is appalling!

Nilrem

buglawton wrote: »

Wow a router that goes back to factory settings on the slightest reset! Highly insecure.
Seems impossible, they usually require a paper clip to be inserted and the reset button kept held down for many seconds.
Are you sure that no impatient teenagers inhabit the same house, who could not be bothered to ask for the password once they lost it?

I had a router not too long ago that seemed to reset the wireless to no password every time the power went out...

Oddly it didn't seem to lose some of the other settings (port forwarding etc), so I suspect it was badly written firmware that wasn't saving the wireless security to flash memory/battery backed up memory.

Some routers, especially older ones have terrible security settings by default, and if they relied on something like a cmos type battery to keep settings when the power went out they will default back to their factory settings if that battery is failing and the power cuts out.

buglawton

esuhl wrote: »

Seems impossible?! Don't you believe me?! I quite thoroughly tested my Netgear router to confirm that the device reset the router to factory settings (including enabling the wireless access point and removing wi-fi security). It ONLY occurred when the video-sender was turned on, NEVER occurred when I stopped using the video-sender, AND the video-sender appeared as a bizarrely-named wireless network in InSSIDer.

It occurred to me that, if someone could connect the video-sender to a portable power source, they could probably wander outside my house, using the video-sender to reset the router and gain access to the network for sending spam or whatever nefarious activities they had in mind... and it would all be traced to an innocent person's Internet account. Thanks, Netgear.

Still, at least the Netgear had a nice web-server interface. The ones in my (ISP supplied) Thomson/Technicolor routers is appalling!

Yes, you may have stumbled on a new method of hacking into some models of router. So it's the video sender, not just a power reset? It's important enough to flag up. I would contact a 'white hat' hacker who would establish if the same hack could work (with portable video sender...) on all such models of router. The manufacturer would then be forced to issue a firmware revision.

It is probably outside the resources of ordinary consumers to demo this hack convincingly and get the manufacturer's attention, sometimes publicity is needed too.

bod1467

Could it be failing capacitors in the router causing power failure and reset? (Other Netgear devices have suffered this issue in the past).

daniellaoxox

My neighbor has got a gigantic aerial on his roof, could this be interfering with it?

esuhl

daniellaoxox wrote: »

My neighbor has got a gigantic aerial on his roof, could this be interfering with it?

Maybe... if it's being used to broadcast (e.g. a CB aerial)... If it's just a TV/radio receiving aerial then it shouldn't cause interference.