PlusNet Router Secure?

[#1]

Hi everyone, I get WHICH? COMPUTING (which may or may not be a good idea!). However on page 53 of the December edition they reviewed routers, and the article pointed out that the Plusnet Technicolor TG582n router that I had was not secure. Following their suggestion I contacted Plusnet, and they immediately sent me another model for free - the Sagemcom 2704n. Unfortunately the WHICH article points out that this model, too, is not secure because it is vulnerable to a ‘command injection attack’ but added that Plusnet is releasing a security patch to fix the issue. Can you advise if this is a serious issue or not, and if Plusnet has released the patch?

[#2]

Could you elaborate on how the 582n is not secure?

A "command injection attack" is a generic class of vulnerability, how serious it is probably depends on how easy it is to exploit. For example, if it could only be done from within your local network, and required knowing the admin password for the router, I wouldn't say it were serious.

[#3]

Thanks for responding. This is what WHICH wrote about the Sagemcom 2704n router: "The router's admin menu is vulnerable to a 'command injection attack' - a hacker could inject their own code to take partial control of the router. They could potentially do this by sending the user a spam message with a clickable link (also known as a phishing attack). Plusnet is releasing a security patch to fix this issue. Verdict: not secure enough." I have no idea how likely it is that such an attack could occur, but I thought it was worth following up and asking you about it. Glynis

[#4]

The patched version of the firmware is 7.275.11. You should be able to check what version you're running from within the router settings pages somewhere (can't remember where). If you don't have the latest (most people do by now), then we can push it to you.
Having said that, you can get around the reported Technicolor problem simply by changing the admin password of the device.

[#5]

Thanks for your helpful response. I will check it.

Best wishes

Glynis