In a January 2019 story, Tomáš Foltýn of ESET layed out his list of bad things a hacked router might do: If the router is hacked, any files that it can see, the bad guys can see. Many routers let you plug a USB based storage device into them for sharing files either within your home or publicly. A big reason for taking over routers (and IoTĭevices too) is to use them in distributed denial of service attacks. Some even put fake error messages up on connected gadgets like smart TVs, urging you to call a phony customer service number."Īn infected router may do nothing to its owner other than slow down the Internet connection. Others make off with your data after using your router to grab remote access to your computers. "Some cybercriminals steal the router's computing power to mint cryptocurrency such as bitcoin - and run up your electricity bill.
#Mikrotik packet sniffer wireshark software#
A more sophisticated hack would see the request to download software and have the router respond with malicious software on its own.įrom this article Dust off your home WiFi router: It needs some upkeep to stay secure in the Washington post (March 23, 2022). A simple way to do this is with malicious DNS servers. If a computer is downloading software, the router can trick it into downloading a malicious copy of the software. Compromising a router’s DNS is as bad as it gets." "Having your router’s DNS compromised can spell disaster because if attackers can redirect you to any page they want without raising any suspicion in your browser, you could end up giving away credentials, you could end up giving away files, all sorts of sensitive information, or even allowing attackers to remotely dial into your company’s infrastructure. In March 2020, Liviu Arsene of BitDefender said A victim using malicious DNS servers can think they are at website A, when they are really seeing a scam copy of it. For more see 7,500+ MikroTik Routers Are Forwarding Owners' Traffic to the Attackers, How is Yours? by Netlab 360.ĭNS Hijacking (changing the DNS servers that the router gives out to attached devices). The sniffer, which uses the TZSP protocol, can send a stream of packets to a remote system using Wireshark or other packet capture tools. This was done using the built-in packet-sniffing capabilities of MikroTik routers. The attackers spied on the routers by forwarding a copy of network traffic to the spies. We saw a public example of this in September 2018 with an attack on MikroTik routers. Spying on your activities (goes without saying). If the interpreter is malicious, they can manipulate either person into thinking anything.Īnd, since a router sits between your home/office and the outside world, it can be attacked from either side. To illustrate what can go wrong, consider two people who speak different languages communicating through an interpreter. The only limit is the imagination and/or technical skill of the bad guys attacking your router.Ī router sits between the Internet and all the computing devices on a LAN. What can go wrong if a router gets hacked? In a word, Everything.Įvery bad thing you can imagine happening to a computing device, can happen to one that sits behind a hacked router.