Anybody who fails to change the default password on a router deserves to have their data stolen. That's like buying a house, but never locking the front door. You're basically begging for somebody to check and see if it's actually locked or not, right before they open it up and jack all your stuff. That being said, this isn't an issue that's solely linked to Linksys.... this could happen with any router, the portable express ones, and even if Apple returns it'd affect them too. Good job Apple, way to play it off as an issue that could only affect your competitor....
Get a grip people. Reads the first sentence. What does it say?
"exposes routers that haven't had their default passwords changed”
So this is actually a Darwin award for those idiots who never changed the default password of their router. I would imagine any router used with the default password would be vulnerable to some sort of exploit. That’s the very first thing I do when configuring a router... change the damn password it shipped with. Duh....
Oh look, another user-blamer. Sorry my guy, but my SO’s mother doesn’t know the first thing about changing her router’s password, or that is different than the wifi network’s password, etc etc. Non techies don’t understand this stuff and that doesn’t make them idiots. Get real. It’s the product’s job to anticipate this. I’m certain you know jack-all about some other topic, like cars, or C#, or specialist medicine...doesn’t make you an idiot, now does it?
Ditch the hate. You sound like a PC guy.
sorry, but if your mother doesn't know enough to change a default password, she shouldn't be setting up a router. 10-20 years ago maybe, but not now. Today, it is regarded as basic knowledge that even grade school kids take for granted.
On the other hand, I have friends who live by the Alfred E. Neuman philosophy of "What? Me Worry?" (What could possibly go wrong?)
I find it surprising there are so few routers affected. Around 20K in total? Hardly worth the time to go about hacking them if it's even possible. Linksys says no and they cannot replicate it, and any susceptible units presumably were not updated by their owners. Of course that might be the expected response.
I see there was an update back in 2014 that supposedly patched this and for the most part it must have been effective. A bit odd tho that a few days later when the researcher did a repeat he came up with 15% fewer routers?
i currently 'trust' google to look after my router
Is that enough? Are you using any Wi-Fi Smart Plugs or smart lights that require you to log in their Wi-Fi network for connection before asking you to tender your Wi-Fi password, or requiring you to create a cloud account to Manage those devices? Are you using any devices owned by a China- or Shenzhen-based company? Have you connected those devices or accessories via Google Home or Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa or Apple HomeKit? Then good luck on you.
Where is the country of Shenzhen located?
Shenzhen is in China, the place where original iPhones are assembled(put together), the place where a lot of American Intellectual Property is stolen.You will also find the 50 cent army trying to defend this theft on public forums, like Appleinsider, macrumors, 9to5mac etc.
I never stop to be amused how sarcasm goes above people’s head. It was a sarcastic reply to another post.
For those that don't know.... "MAC" and "Mac" are not the same thing in this context.
MAC — Media Access Control Mac — Macintosh computer
Every Ethernet and wireless connection in the entire world has a unique MAC address. It's the hardware address that participates in the 7-layer networking stack that make up communications between devices.
Get a grip people. Reads the first sentence. What does it say?
"exposes routers that haven't had their default passwords changed”
So this is actually a Darwin award for those idiots who never changed the default password of their router. I would imagine any router used with the default password would be vulnerable to some sort of exploit. That’s the very first thing I do when configuring a router... change the damn password it shipped with. Duh....
I rarely change the default password, and that doesn't make me an idiot. The idiots would be the designers that make that password work outside of the local network. I don't set up any networks that people can physically or wirelessly connect to without my permission, so your little judgment there is unfounded and a tad harsh. Changing the password is definitely a smart move, but should be unnecessary if the device's security is designed correctly.
It's news reports like these that makes me wish that Apple gets back in the router business. I've owned every brand of consumer router made and they were all garbage. From hardware instabilities requiring a monthly reboot, to software vulnerabilities, and downright failures every six months. They were trash. I own sever multi-unit apartment buildings and provide Internet access to each one as a courtesy. Having routers fail every few months, or get unstable every few weeks was frustrating.
A friend recommended I try an Apple Extreme. Out of desperation I tried one and after a couple months of testing in one unit, it was love from that point forward. I purchased a bunch of them to replace all the Chinese crap and in 10 years since having them installed, have never had one fail or act strangely. It broke my heart when I heard Apple was getting out of that business.
Eventually, I read a report that many of those crap routers (Netgear, Linksys, D-link) were all failing due to the companies going the cheap route and transitioned from quality Japanese capacitors to the crappy, cheap Chinese-made capacitors and just like most things coming out of that country, was complete junk. Apparently, many of those companies abandoned them and went back to more reliable capacitor from Japan.
I could write a book about all the experiences I’ve had with Chinese component parts. The spec sheets look good. But performance and reliability were dreadful. Many painful lessons there.
This is one of the most impressive things about Apple, and it’s a credit to Tim Cook. That Apple is able to manage supply chain quality in China and deliver superb state of the art products just blows me away. Cause it’s damn hard. I know.
Comments
I guess that you can't fix stupid.
People like that will run into issues no matter what they're using.
I see there was an update back in 2014 that supposedly patched this and for the most part it must have been effective. A bit odd tho that a few days later when the researcher did a repeat he came up with 15% fewer routers?
MAC — Media Access Control
Mac — Macintosh computer
Every Ethernet and wireless connection in the entire world has a unique MAC address. It's the hardware address that participates in the 7-layer networking stack that make up communications between devices.
I rarely change the default password, and that doesn't make me an idiot. The idiots would be the designers that make that password work outside of the local network. I don't set up any networks that people can physically or wirelessly connect to without my permission, so your little judgment there is unfounded and a tad harsh. Changing the password is definitely a smart move, but should be unnecessary if the device's security is designed correctly.
This is one of the most impressive things about Apple, and it’s a credit to Tim Cook. That Apple is able to manage supply chain quality in China and deliver superb state of the art products just blows me away. Cause it’s damn hard. I know.
I have a Time Capsule still going strong. Never have to reboot it either.