During installation, the router sent several data packets to an Amazon server in the US. These packets contained the configured SSID name and password in clear text, as well as some identification tokens for this network within a broader database and an access token for a user session that could potentially enable a MITM attack.
Linksys has refused to acknowledge/respond to the issue.
This. This is why I have trust issues and only run devices I can flash OpenWRT (or other appropriate custom firmware) to.
It’s like all the tech companies are actively working together to give us trust issues at this point. Used to flash things for fun because I can, more and more it feels like it’s a necessity just to get basic human rights respected.
Yep.
Every piece of networking gear in my house (except my ONT grrrrr) is running OpenWRT. Which also makes it nice since I can script any changes and push them out.
Is the ONT in bridge mode?
Yeah. I get my wan IP assigned to my router.
Exacly. You basically need to flash something like grapheneos on your phone, install linux on your computer and run custom firmware on your router to even have any semblance of privacy
And a VPN, ad blocking / Pihole, custom DNS / SDNS, stingray detection, SNORT/ IPS/IDS, and better have your wifi and Bluetooth turned off your phone before you go to the market shopping because they’re fingerprinting your Mac addresses there too.
Why are they sending that data to Cisco at all? That’s a ridiculous privacy violation, especially if they’re stupid enough to do it in cleartext.
You mean Linksys, not Cisco. Cisco sold Linksys to Belkin, now Foxconn, like over a decade ago. I think it’s a pretty important distinction considering Cisco is enterprise focused and linksys is more home/consumer focused.
What does this mean, that the use plain HTTP or some other protocol? I can’t see details.
This is why I don’t run consumer crap. Among other reasons.
You do know that enterprise doesn’t make you safer, right? Consumer gets hit by botnets, enterprise gets hit by higher level attacks.
I don’t get your point. This isn’t an attack, this is a cheap consumer company doing what they do best and stealing your personal information because $ and other crap. If this happened in enterprise they’d be in so much shit with laws. Cisco, juniper, Aruba, etc are not going to be shipping off your passwords because that liability is going to be a big problem.
Enterprise level stuff also charge top dollar and don’t need to sell your data to make more money.
If enterprise level stuff we’re doing this intentionally they’d be out of business. This would not fly with SOC and other security designations.
Additionally just because a consumer uses enterprise gear, that does not make them a larger target. I’m not Microsoft. No state attacker is going to want my worthless data.
Additionally just because a consumer uses enterprise gear, that does not make them a larger target.
It’ll make them a target of attacks targeting that class of gear.
Most threat actors are looking at who owns what IP space and checking the IPs of that, or what other public info they can find (website address etc). Not chasing after someone with a consumer internet IP. There is just not the same incentive.
Have any good recs for nonconsumer wifi mesh system that is not too far off from consumer prices? I had a velop system for awhile and it was torture. This thing stems from horrid design and will likely always be awful. Use an Asus system now and have been happy with it. Used to run Asus systems with merlin, but admittedly running stock firmware now.
Ubiquiti gear is very solid for the price. Start with their dream machine (check eBay for used, just saw one for $150, otherwise $300 new), and then add nano access points as needed. Enterprise gear for a fraction of the price.
Isn’t Ubiquiti back to being a “have to make a cloud account to control all your local devices” company?
They’re either or. Their configuration device is called a cloud key, but it runs locally on your network. You can choose to enable cloud management, though everything can be administered locally, nor do they punish you for it.
You can also run the Network Controller on any PC or even Home Assistant if you dont need to do any advanced traffic routing features.
The only disadvantage is that updates cannot be automatically applied while the network controller is off, the APs however do work fine without it, as long as they are configured once.
Unifi is probably the best you’ll get for prosumer. Unfortunately it’s not without flaws either. I’d take it over the junk consumer brands any day still. Because I work in the industry and I like to use a lot more advanced things, I can’t get myself to use anything other than opnsense for home use. I have a protectli for hardware. You can install pfsense, opnsense, probably even ddwrt which is probably the most friendly of the bunch from what I hear. I use a ruckus poe fanless switch, but this is the least important for a typical home user network. Just get something that has poe and isn’t cloud managed 😂
I thought Ubiquiti moved back to cloud managed on everything? Or is that just the network cameras?
Wow, Linksys in 2024 still thinks like it’s 1998.
1984