Hundreds of thousands–potentially more than one million–Netgear routers are susceptible Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to a pair of vulnerabilities that can lead to password disclosure . Researchers said Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that while anyone who has physical access to a router can exploit Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the vulnerabilities locally , the real threat is that the flaw can also be exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability remotely . According to Simon Kenin , a security researcher with Trustwave ’ s Spiderlabs team , who discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the flaw and disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability it Monday , the vulnerabilities can be remotely exploited Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability if the router ’ s remote management option is enabled . While Netgear claims remote management is turned off on routers by default , Kenin said there are “ hundreds of thousands , if not over a million ” devices left remotely accessible . Kenin claims that all he had to do was send a simple request to the router ’ s web management server to retrieve a router ’ s password . After determining a number that corresponds to a password recovery token , he found he could pair it with a call to the router ’ s passwordrecovered.cgi script . Kenin claims Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability he made his discovery by leveraging two exploits disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in 2014 on some Netgear routers he had hanging around . It wasn ’ t until after Kenin pieced together a python script designed to diagnose the scope of the issue that he determined he could still retrieve the router ’ s credentials even if he didn ’ t send the correct password recovery token . “ After few trials and errors trying to reproduce the issue , I found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that the very first call to passwordrecovered.cgi will give out the credentials no matter what the parameter you send . This is totally new bug that I haven’t seen Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability anywhere else . When I tested both bugs on different NETGEAR models , I found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that my second bug works on a much wider range of models , ” Kenin wrote Monday . Kenin ’ s employer , Trustwave , divulged Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability details around both vulnerabilities in a lengthy blog post Monday , putting the wraps on a nearly year-long odyssey with the vendor . The firm first disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the vulnerability to Netgear in April 2016 , initially it listing 18 vulnerable models , before listing 25 vulnerable models in a subsequent advisory . After repeated requests for an update on a fix for the vulnerability , Netgear finally obliged in July and provided Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability firmware updates for a fraction of the affected routers . It wasn ’ t until this weekend that Netgear acknowledged Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability the issues again , posting Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability an updated version of the article on its support page , instructing users to find and download the appropriate firmware fixes . The most recent version of the advisory claims there are 31 vulnerable models , 18 of which are patched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . The company is encouraging users of some devices in which firmware is not available to implement a workaround . According to Netgear , users of 12 different models would be best served to manually enable password recovery and disable remote management on their devices . “ The potential for password exposure remains if you do not complete both steps . NETGEAR is not responsible for any consequences that could have been avoided by following the recommendations in this notification , ” the company writes . It ’ s the first critical vulnerability to affect Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Netgear routers this year but the second in the last two months . In December , it was discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that a handful of the company ’ s Nighthawk line of routers were vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to a flaw that could have given an attacker root access on the device and allowed them to run remote code . The company was quick to release Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability beta firmware updates to address Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the vulnerability but simultaneously confirmed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that more routers than originally reported were vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . When reached Wednesday , a Netgear spokesperson said it was aware of the vulnerability and that it was appreciative of the research Trustwave carried out . Trustwave discloses Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability an unpatched vulnerability in Brother printers with the Debut embedded webserver after numerous attempts to contact the vendor failed .

Simon Kenin , a security researcher at Trustwave , was – by his own admission – being lazy the day he discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability an authentication vulnerability in his Netgear router . Instead of getting up out of bed to address a connection problem , he started fuzzing the web interface and discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a serious issue . Kenin had hit upon unauth.cgi , code that was previously tied to two different exploits in 2014 for unauthenticated password disclosure flaws . The short version of the 2014 vulnerability is that an attacker can get unauth.cgi to issue a number that can be passed over to passwordrecovered.cgi in order to receive credentials . Kenin tested their exploits and was able to get his password . [ Learn about top security certifications : Who they 're for , what they cost , and which you need . The following day he started gathering other Netgear devices to test . While repeating the process , he made an error , but that did n't prevent him from obtaining credentials . That accidental discovery Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability resulted in CVE-2017-5521 . `` After few trials and errors trying to reproduce the issue , I found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that the very first call to passwordrecovered.cgi will give out the credentials no matter what the parameter you send . This is totally new bug that I haven’t seen Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability anywhere else . When I tested both bugs on different NETGEAR models , I found Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that my second bug works on a much wider range of models , '' Kenin explained in a recent blog post . There are at least ten thousand devices online that are vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability to the flaw that Kenin discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , but he says the real number could reach the hundreds of thousands , or even millions . `` The vulnerability can be used by a remote attacker if remote administration is set to be Internet facing . However , anyone with physical access to a network with a vulnerable router can exploit it locally . This would include public Wi-Fi spaces like cafés and libraries using vulnerable equipment , '' Kenin wrote . Kenin reached out to Netgear and reported the problems , but it was no easy task . The first advisory listed 18 devices that were vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , followed by a second advisory detailing an additional 25 models . A few months later , in June 2016 , Netgear finally published an advisory that offered Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a fix for a small subset of the vulnerable devices , and a workaround for others . Eventually , Netgear reported that they were going to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability all the unpatched models . They also teamed up with Bugcrowd to improve their vulnerability handling process . Netgear has a status page on the vulnerability , they also provide a workaround for those who ca n't update their firmware yet . It was n't until after the story ran that the PR firm representing Trustwave and pitching the research named Simon Kenin as one who made the discovery Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability . Netgear issued a statement , downplaying the discovery some Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability , and reminding users that fixes are available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability for most of the impacted devices . The emailed comments are reprinted below : NETGEAR is aware of the vulnerability ( CVE-2017-5521 ) , that has been recently publicized Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability by Trustwave . We have been working with the security analysts to evaluate the vulnerability . NETGEAR has published Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability a knowledge base article from our support page , which lists the affected routers and the available firmware fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . Firmware fixes are currently available Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability for the majority of the affected devices . To download the firmware release that fixes Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability the password recovery vulnerability , click the link for the model and visit the firmware release page for further instructions .