Attacks Against 2wire Residential Gateway Routers

Architecture and Background

Attacks Against 2wire Residential Gateways Pedro "hkm" Joaquin Some time ago there was a vulnerability in 2wire residential routers that allowed DNS Poisoning via Cross Site Request Forgery, this was widely exploited in Mexico where this router is most commonly used.

Vulnerability Analysis

The patch actually contained an Authentication Bypass vulnerability that made things worse, and now, after the patch got patched, there are still many public unpatched vulnerabilities that plague this device.

Exploitation and Demonstrations

Pedro "hkm" Joaquin was born in Cozumel island in the Caribbean, currently he is an independent security researcher living in Mexico City.

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

Pedro used to be a forensic investigator, malware analyst and antimalware software vendor for banks in Mexico. 8 years ago Pedro created a community called "Mexican Underground Community" (underground.org.mx) which focuses on hacking and phreaking, They are the largest hacking community in Mexico and have done many public and private meetings all over Mexico including some 2600 ones. Over the past years Pedro has been researching residential routers and has found several critical bugs in many of them, primarily focusing on the most popular and commonly used routers in Mexico, the 2wire residential gateway. For copies of the slides and additional materials please see the DEF CON 17 Archive here: