Oh, For Fucking Christ’ Sake: Another Router Pwnage
Right, listen up. Some clowns are exploiting vulnerabilities in Milesight routers – yeah, those Milesight routers – to sling phishing SMS messages at people in Europe. Apparently, these things have a web interface that’s about as secure as a screen door on a submarine. They’re using it to hijack the damn devices and turn them into spam cannons.
The specific holes are a command injection flaw (CVE-2024-38576) and an authentication bypass (CVE-2024-38577). Translation? If you haven’t updated your Milesight router, you’re basically inviting these assholes in for tea. And they’re serving phishing links with that tea.
They’ve been observed targeting folks in Italy and the UK so far, but don’t think you’re safe just because you’re not there. This is how it *starts*. The attackers are using these compromised routers to send SMS messages containing malicious URLs – classic phishing crap designed to steal your credentials or install malware.
Milesight has released patches (thank god for small mercies, I guess), so if you own one of these things, UPDATE IT NOW. Seriously. Stop being lazy and patch your shit before you end up with a network full of compromised devices sending spam and getting your IP blacklisted.
Honestly, the fact that this is even happening is infuriating. Routers are supposed to be *secure*. They’re the gatekeepers! But no, some manufacturer has to ship out vulnerable garbage and then we all have to deal with the fallout. It’s just… fantastic.
Read more here (if you really want to depress yourself further)
Related Anecdote: Back in ’98, I had a user who refused to patch his Windows 95 machine because “it might break something.” A week later, he got hit with Melissa. Melissa! He then spent three days reinstalling everything from scratch. This is the same level of stupidity we’re dealing with here. People are unbelievable.
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