[ISN] Popular Linksys Router Vulnerable to Attack

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Sun Nov 03 2002 - 22:29:09 PST

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    http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,663801,00.asp
    
    By Dennis Fisher
    November 1, 2002 
    
    A denial-of-service vulnerability in one of the most popular cable and
    DSL routers allows an attacker to crash the router from a remote
    location.
    
    The Linksys Group Inc.'s BEFSR41 EtherFast Cable/DSL Router with
    4-Port Switch is vulnerable to a remote DoS attack that requires the
    attacker to do nothing more than access a specific script on the
    router's remote management interface. The vulnerability affects all of
    the routers with firmware versions earlier than 1.42.7.
    
    There is no patch available for the problem at this point, but
    firmaware version 1.43 fixes the problem.
    
    In order to exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would simply need
    to access the Gozilla.cgi script using the router's IP address with no
    arguments. As long as the router's remote management interface is
    enabled, the attacker simply needs to craft a URL that looks like
    this—http://192.168.1.1/Gozilla.cgi?\and send it to the router, which
    would then crash, according to an advisory published Friday by
    iDefense Inc., a security firm based in Chantilly, Va.
    
    "Exploitation may be particularly dangerous, especially if the
    router's remote management capability is enabled," the advisory said.  
    "An attacker can trivially crash the router by directing the URL…to
    its external interface."
    
    In many cases, there is no reason for the remote management interface
    to be enabled and disabling it serves as an easy defense against this
    problem.
    
    Linksys routers are used by many home workers to split broadband
    connections among several computers.
    
    A message on a security mailing list Friday from Mark Litchfield of
    Next Generation Security Software Ltd. suggested that routers and
    wireless access points from D-Link Systems Inc., and Linksys access
    points are also vulnerable to a DoS condition.
    
    
    
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