The guest Wi-Fi at your home is prone to hacking owing to inadequate in-built security, say researchers. Most routers sold today offer consumers two or more network options – one for the family which may connect all the sensitive smart devices and computers and the other for visitors or less sensitive data.
A study by Israel-based Ben-Gurion University (BGU) indicates that routers from well-known manufacturers are vulnerable to cross-router data leaks through a malicious attack on one of the two separated networks.
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“All of the routers we surveyed regardless of brand or price point were vulnerable to at least some cross-network communication once we used specially crafted network packets,” said Adar Ovadya from BGU’s department of software and information systems engineering.
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Less sensitive data may include multimedia streams or environmental sensor readings.
In the paper, the researchers demonstrated the existence of different levels of cross-router covert channels which can be combined and exploited to either control a malicious implant, or to exfiltrate or steal the data.
In some instances, these can be patched as a simple software bug, but more pervasive covert cross-channel communication is impossible to prevent, unless the data streams are separated on different hardware.
“A hardware-based solution seems to be the safest approach to guaranteeing isolation between secure and non-secure network devices,” Ovadya added.
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