COMMAND
DSL routers
SYSTEMS AFFECTED
DSL routers
PROBLEM
Andrew R. Siverly found following (Kewlhair Security Advisory).
SBC is currently deploying the Cayman-DSL router to its DSL
customer's (SBC communications being the parent company for
Southwestern Bell, Ameritech, Pacific Bell, Nevada Bell, Cellular
One, and a few more). With this deployment SBC is neglecting to
set passwords on the router. Kewlhair has found over 300 of these
non-pass worded routers.
Telco engineers often fail to set passwords on DSL modems
installed at Customer sites. The vulnerability affects many
different DSL modems. The Cayman product is especially vulnerable
because it defaults to having no Password at all. As the Telco's
does often not educate the customers, their modems are left
vulnerable to intrusion and denial of service events.
An individual with malicious intent could easy scan for these
devices on a DSL providers network, connect to them, and disable
them without significant effort. In addition, an intruder could
disable access to the device itself by installing a password
(which only they would know).
A significant vulnerability is that these devices often can be set
with Static routing tables so packets could be sent through an
environment where a malicious third party could monitor the
traffic. The Demo:
[ user@xxxx /user]# telnet xxx.xxx.xxx..xxx..
Trying xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx...
Connected to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.
Escape character is '^]'.
Terminal shell v1.0
Cayman-DSL Model 3220-H, DMT-ADSL (Alcatel) plus 4-port hub
Running GatorSurf version 5.3.0 (build R2)
( completed login: administrator level)
Cayman-DSLXXXXXX>
Evan worse case. Someone writes a script that logs into every one
of these routers sets the passwords, then changes the ip or kills
the interface so it no longer works properly. Then causing and
SBC engineer to come to the home or place of business to fix this
problem.
Bret Piatt added following. He found he was able to access:
http://router.ip.address/<protected url>
without authenticating. It seems some of the <protected url>
don't check to see if you are authenticated it just assumes you
won't know the <protected url> path if you aren't and the only
way it assumes to get there is through the menus that will require
authentication.
SOLUTION
Mandate that the Telco engineers change the default passwords on
the devices at time of install, and provide literature to the
consumer advising them of the risks of DSL (or cable) connections
to the Internet.
Quick solution: Set your password on your Cayman router:
http://cayman.com/security.html#passwordprotect
How to password protect the Cayman router? Through the browser:
1. Browse into the Cayman router.
2. Click on the " Expert Mode" link.
3. A second of row of links will appear.
4. Then select the " Passwords" link.
Through a Telnet session:
1. First establish a telnet session to the unit or connect
serially to the console port at 9600 Baud.
2. At the prompt, type " configure" ( NOTE-all commands are
typed without quotes) and enter.
3. At this point you will be at the " top" prompt. Then type
"system" and enter.
4. Now you will be at the " system" prompt. Here you type,"
set password" admin and enter.
5. You will then be prompted for the new password and then be
prompted to repeat the password. Once you have done this,
you will be back at the system prompt.
6. Here you will need to repeat the process, this time for the
user password, by doing the following steps:
7. Type, "set password user" and enter. Again you will then be
prompted for the new password an then be prompted to repeat
the password. Once this is done, you will be at the
"system" prompt again. Here type, "quit", and you will be
prompted, "Save modified configuration data [y|n] ?" Type,
"yes" and the router is now password protected.
SBC has no plans to upgrade the end users to Cisco do to price.
The Alcatel/Cayman is clearly cheaper. However Pactel is install
Cisco routers/DSL briges, the Cisco 14xx that they are deployed
currently have telnet enable on them. The user name and password
are all set to PASSWORD on them, unless the customer changes it.
Pactel nor any other Bell (that is owned by SBC) is telling the
customer about the password or how to change it.