

'Contagious' wi-fi virus created by Liverpool researchers - choult
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26352439

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Derpdiherp
Interesting, but it still relies on the default username and password on the
router. I think this points at a glaring hole in router security, why aren't
password and username changes forced on the first bootup of the device? Having
the password as "changeme" is not good enough for your everyday user, they are
very unlikely to ever use them without being forced so will plain not know
they are meant to at all.

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lewispollard
FWIW, the last few routers I've had (supplied by UK ISPs) have had random
admin passwords set by default, printed onto a sticker.

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bazzargh
The random admin passwords would be great if they weren't also leaving in
backdoors.

[https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Xmlset_roodkcableoj28840ybtide](https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Xmlset_roodkcableoj28840ybtide)
[https://github.com/elvanderb/TCP-32764](https://github.com/elvanderb/TCP-32764)

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tfinniga
Seems like a worm, not a virus.

Technically correct, the best kind of correct.

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forcer
I think it makes nice story but I would be very surprised if such a virus
could spread. You have many router brands and versions and you would need to
develop and test your firmware on many of those to make sure it can spread.
Also, correct me if I am wrong but not many routers have easy way of uploading
new firmware.

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Xylakant
Well, base your virus partially on DD-WRT or any other open source router OS
and you're in the game. Consumer routers usually have a button "upload new
firmware" somewhere in the administrative web UI.

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iuguy
You do know that there's more than one hardware platform for routers, right?

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noobface
You'd be surprised how similar they are, at least the consumer versions.

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iuguy
Ok, so you have a lot of stuff based on similar SoCs and common platforms like
MIPS (although ARM is in use it tends to be more low power on consumer
routers, broadcom's MIPS certainly is the major player). However most of the
routers have different components, memory configurations and here's the bit
that kills random firmware upgrades: Different Memory Technology Device (MTD)
layouts. Think of this a little like partition layouts. The flash upgrade
process will vary by vendor and will often flash MTDs of specific sizes. If
the sizes don't match, it won't work or worse it'll brick the device.

Source: 2 years ago I spoke at Blackhat EU on breaking into MiFi hotspots[1]
and I've been breaking Linux-based hardware devices since about 2011.

[1] -
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZAjtxmxTkg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZAjtxmxTkg)

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zwieback
Terrible article, I expected more from the BBC. Basically "stuff you should be
afraid of but we won't explain how it works or provide links to the original
work."

Here's the link to the research, which is primarily concerned with methods of
detecting AP-AP viruses, the actual Chameleon virus seems to be just some kind
of proxy to test spread and detection of real viruses.

[http://jis.eurasipjournals.com/content/2013/1/2](http://jis.eurasipjournals.com/content/2013/1/2)

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wydok
It's an episode of Doctor Who!

