Own one of these routers? It may be vulnerable to hackers
Exploiting these routers is "trivial" according to CERT.
Credit:
Netgear
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Security experts are warning that certain Netgear routers can be exploited by hackers, according to an advisory published Friday by the CERT division of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
The exploit is "trivial" to take advantage of according to the advisory, requiring that users of those routers merely click a malicious link to a "specially crafted" website. From there a remote hacker could use a web server to execute low-level commands that would open you up to further issues.
The vulnerability has been confirmed by Netgear, which issued a statement listing specific models that may be affected, including the popular R7000, R6400, and R8000 routers.
At this time, there doesn't appear to be an easy fix for the problem and a firmware update has yet to be issued. As a result, the best course of action is to discontinue the use of these routers until a fix can be issued.
To stay on top of this story and to ensure that you get the most up-to-date information about this problem, we recommend you bookmark the CERT's advisory page about the issue.