FYI...

Home Wireless AP Hardening in 5 Steps
- http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=4282
Last Updated: 2008-04-11 19:58:32 UTC - "... There are dangers in all consumer network hardware that require the attention of everyone that installs these devices regardless of the vendor. Taking a device out of the box, plugging it in and letting it go can expose you to "worms" or other remote-based exploitation. This stems from a similar problem with software and operating systems, namely, these things do not ship in a secure-by-default configuration.
Here are 5 easy steps to take when you get a network device / access point to harden yourself against "easy" exploitation (and this applies to ALL hardware):
1) Change the default passwords...
2) Disable remote administration...
3) Update the firmware...
4) Disable unused services...
5) Change the default settings of the device..."

(More detail at the Internet Storm Center URL above.)

FYI...

- http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/06/malware_silently_alters_wirele_1.html
June 11, 2008 - "...recent versions of the ubiquitous "Zlob" Trojan (also known as DNSChanger) will check to see if the victim uses a wireless or wired hardware router. If so, it tries to guess the password needed to administer the router by consulting a built-in list* of default router uname/password combinations. If successful, the malware alters the victim's domain name system (DNS) records so that all future traffic passes through the attacker's network first. DNS can be thought of as the Internet's phone book, translating human-friendly names like example.com into numeric addresses that are easier for networking equipment to handle. While researchers have long warned that threats against hardware routers could one day be incorporated into malicious software, this appears to be the first time this behavior has been spotted in malware released into the wild. The type of functionality incorporated into this version of the Zlob Trojan is extremely concerning for a number of reasons. First, Zlob is among the most common type of Trojan downloaded onto Windows machines. According to Microsoft, the company's malicious software removal tool [MSRT] zapped some 14.3 million instances of Zlob-related malware from customer machines in the second half of 2007. The other, more important reason this shift is scary is that a Windows user with a machine infected with a Zlob/DNSChanger variant may succeed in cleaning the malware off an infected computer completely, but still leave the network compromised. Few regular PC users (or even PC technicians) think to look to the router settings, provided the customer's Internet connection is functioning fine... Specific, manufacturer-based video tutorials on how to secure your wireless router are available at this link**..."
* http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/zlobpass.txt

** http://onguardonline.gov/tutorials/index.html#tutorials-wireless

FYI...

- http://blog.trendmicro.com/zlob-enters-the-search-engine-market/
August 7, 2008 - "More than a year ago, Trend Micro threat researchers uncovered a network of over 900 rogue DNS (Domain Name System) servers related to the ZLOB Trojan family. We gave examples showing that these rogue DNS servers are part of click fraud and leakage of personal information. Just recently, however, we discovered that this network is now targeting four of the most popular search engines. In a large scale click fraud scheme, the ZLOB gang appears to hijack search results and to replace sponsored links with DNS “tricks”... These ZLOB Trojans we found, silently change the local DNS settings of affected systems to use two out of the abovementioned 900+ rogue DNS servers. These Trojans spread by advanced social engineering tricks; an example would be professional-looking Web sites that promise Internet users access to pornographic movies after installing malware that pose as video codecs. The number of ZLOB-related infections is huge — for the last six months of 2007, Microsoft reported more than 14,000,000 infections. It now appears that the ZLOB gang has entered the multibillion-dollar search engine market. ZLOB’s rogue DNS servers resolve several domain names of the main engines to fraudulent IP addresses. Among others, this criminal operation has even set up rogue sites of the UK and Canadian versions of one of the largest search engines. Even searches performed via the installed browser toolbar (provided by the same company) are now being hijacked by ZLOB. Another popular search engine company has been hit even harder — most, if not all, domain names of the search engine that give back search results get resolved to fraudulent Web sites by the rogue DNS servers. The primary objective of ZLOB here appears to be stealing traffic and clicks from search engines, making money along the way. Affected users are immediately redirected to sites that are not at all related to their original search queries. All sponsored search hits of the two main search engines we analyzed were hijacked by ZLOB. Clicks on sponsored links then are not credited to big search engine companies, but to the ZLOB gang instead..."

FYI...

- http://www.viruslist.com/en/analysis?pubid=204792017
Sep 01 2008 - "... most widespread malicious programs... This table shows the malicious programs detected on users’ computers...
1. Trojan.Win32.DNSChanger.ech ..."

FYI...

- http://preview.tinyurl.com/5cg8nh
September 15, 2008 - "...Instead of scouring for anonymous proxies to stay faceless on the internet, cyber criminals are increasingly targeting unsecured Wi-FI networks to get the job done. A combination of war driving tools such as NetStumbler along with a listing of default router unames and passwords* is all it takes to freely connect to unsecured Wi-FI networks. Especially since most Wi-Fi routers use default security settings that come pre-installed by the vendor rather than it having being configured by the end user. SOHO routers log every connection and DHCP lease but these logs are flushed once the router is rebooted. If an attacker has access to the administrative console of the router (thanks to the default password), once their nefarious actives have been carried out, a simple restart of the router will erase all tracks. The extent to which an unsecured Wi-Fi connection can be abused is purely left to imagination of the attacker..."
* http://www.routerpasswords.com/

FYI...

- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/09/wiglenet_the_411_on_wireless_a.html
September 26, 2008 - "...Why is changing the default settings on wireless access point a big deal? Because there are plenty of Web sites that list the default user names and passwords built into every brand of router out there... For instance, if I were looking for an exposed wireless network, I'd probably start by searching the local zip code for the default SSID assigned to many popular routers. After all, these would most likely be the networks powered by users who yanked their shiny new routers straight out of the box and plugged them right into the user's modem without modifying a thing..."
* http://wigle.net/gps/gps/main/ssidstats