FBI recommends to power cycle routers to stop Russia-linked malware

[gary]

On May 25th 2018, the FBI issued this warning :-
https://www.ic3.gov/media/2018/180525.aspx





Article here :-
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/27/technology/router-fbi-reboot-malware.html

[gary]

Wikipedia article on VPNFilter :-

[gary]

Symantec article providing background and their advice :-

https://www.symantec.com/blogs/threat-intelligence/vpnfilter-iot-malware

[Dennis]

Thanks Gary, I appreciate the heads up.

Cheers

Dennis

[sil]

Its something I've learnt to do anyway by habit to many networked devices. Poor design means buffers fill up and you get performance problems anyway, just powering off for 30sec gives them time to fully discharge and cool down a moment and everything just runs smoother once powered back up. Fresh network addresses get assigned etc. For me its always been a no brainer for a smooth and stable network. Even plug stuff into one powerboard with a power timer to cut power once a week at a suitable time.

[Dennis]

Ah, that's good news then, as I power down everything overnight and power up again each new day; PC, Modem, Router, Switch, Printer, NAS, UPS - the whole shebang.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[The_bluester]

Thankfully mine is not on the list as I rarely power it off, I might reboot it every few days as a precaution anyway and see if a new firmware is released for it soon.

I am in the opposite situation to sil. I got sick of having to regularly power cycle or reboot my router via the management interface to keep it stable so I went out and bought an enterprise grade one. It was online and performing well with 12 months uptime at one point until we had a power outage long enough to dry up the UPS.

Consumer grade ones tend to have rubbish firmware, tacitly admitted by at least one of the manufacturers which builds in a "Self healing" function where you can schedule a periodic reboot. Basically admitting that the firmware is such flaky rubbish that it will stop working properly unless it is rebooted on a regular basis.

[Nikolas]

meh it's good practise to powercycle your router at least once a week to clear it and refresh the connection, much like any device though I'd be really worried if Russian hackers were trying to access my computer as they would be deeply disappointed and would be sad for them. I mean no one want to see a sad Russian hacker

[The_bluester]

I have to argue with that. If it actually works properly and stays stable in the long term what does a regular reboot achieve?

Maybe if you are talking about a combined DSL MODEM/Router it might be worthwhile if it helps with the DSL connection but even when we were on DSL I bridged the MODEM and used a decent stand alone router as the combination of a good MODEM, good router and good Wifi access point in a single box proved to be a unicorn. I now have NBN fixed wireless, separate router, separate switch (Tech heavy house) and stand alone enterprise grade Wifi access points, largely they just work too, months of uptime without going flaky.

I got a router that did not need regular rebooting to keep the router function stable as at least once a month a scheduled reboot would mess something up in the network that then needed digging into and fixing by me.

[LewisM]

Sounds just like the NSA’s Stuxnet, just less insidious

[AndyG]

This is very true, but often unappreciated by most. I spent 10 years selling and servicing "consumer" grade gear, only to experience a culture shock when I went "upmarket" a bit.


I now run an Avaya 48 port POE switch (40 ports in use), and 4x Ubiquiti AC Pro APs. My router (on Fibre NBN) is just a dinky little ASUS, but partly thanks to the Merlin WRT firmware, I'm currently enjoying 154 days of uptime. When the ASUS drops its guts (3yrs old so far), I think i'll snag a Ubiquiti Edgerouter. Very happy with their stuff.


I have to bite my tongue when dealing with trash routers that the telcos issue on contracts. No insult to the owners of course, it's just hard to explain/justify that there are better things out there.

[The_bluester]

I am only at 23 days uptime at the moment, we have had a heap of extended power outages this year, 23 days would be back to the last one long enough to run the UPS down. We got to nearly a year at one point.



The Cisco switch we are using (Not Linksys, proper Cisco) has been "Just working" for about 8 years, plug in, switch on, go.