How to Hack Millions of Routers

Architecture and Background

Craig Heffner - How to Hack Millions of Routers This talk will demonstrate how many consumer routers can be exploited via DNS rebinding to gain interactive access to the router's internal-facing administrative interface. Unlike other DNS rebinding techniques, this attack does not require prior knowledge of the target router or the router's configuration settings such as make, model, internal IP address, host name, etc, and does not rely on any anti-DNS pinning techniques, thus circumventing existing DNS rebinding protections.

Vulnerability Analysis

A tool release will accompany the presentation that completely automates the described attack and allows an external attacker to browse the Web-based interface of a victim's router in real time, just as if the attacker were sitting on the victim's LAN. This can be used to exploit vulnerabilities in the router, or to simply log in with the router's default credentials.

Exploitation and Demonstrations

A live demonstration will show how to pop a remote root shell on Verizon FIOS routers (ActionTec MI424-WR). Confirmed affected routers include models manufactured by Linksys, Belkin, ActionTec, Thompson, Asus and Dell, as well as those running third-party firmware such as OpenWRT, DD-WRT and PFSense.

Remediation and Defensive Strategies

Craig Heffner's experience in IT security includes system and network analysis, wireless and networking security and vulnerability discovery, and he is currently employed as a Senior Security Engineer for Seismic LLC. He frequently publishes various tools, papers and vulnerability reports, and has a special fondness for embedded devices, particularly any whose descriptions include the words "wireless" or "Web based administrative interface". For copies of the slides and additional materials please see the DEF CON 18 Archive here: