Manufacturers are therefore urged to implement guidelines for IoT supply chain security.

As a result, these components or products become an unpredictable risk,” warns Florian Lukavsky of IoT Inspector. “There is currently far too little security awareness for devices in these categories – neither among users, nor among manufacturers, who blindly rely on components from other manufacturers in their supply chain without testing them. In total, a dozen vulnerabilities were found in the chipset. A successful attack would provide full control of the Wi-Fi module, as well as root access to the embedded device’s operating system. However, faulty ISP configurations also expose numerous vulnerable devices directly to the Internet. For an exploit to succeed, an attacker usually needs to be on the same Wi-Fi network. A detailed list of affected devices is included in IoT Inspector’s advisory, but the list may potentially be much longer. The chips supplied by Realtek are used by almost all well-known manufacturers and can be found in VoIP and wireless routers, repeaters, IP cameras, and smart lighting controls. Uncontrolled supply chains that serve hundreds of thousands of devices Only by analyzing each firmware can it be determined whether vulnerable components are still being used.

For this particular case, IoT Inspector is making its platform available to potentially affected manufacturers and users for a free check. The company has already published a number of coordinated security advisories with affected manufacturers in the past, thwarting potential hacking attacks. The security platform probes the firmware of IoT devices such as routers, IP cameras or printers. Manufacturers using vulnerable Wi-Fi modules are strongly encouraged to check their devices and provide security patches to their users,” said Florian Lukavsky, managing director of IoT Inspector. We notified Realtek, and they immediately responded and provided an appropriate patch. “Our security reseachers have discovered and analyzed this vulnerability, which affects hundreds of thousands of devices. A vulnerability within the Realtek RTL819xD module allows hackers to gain complete access to the device, installed operating systems and other network devices.

Security specialist IoT Inspector offers free checks to affected manufacturers and companiesīad Homburg, Aug– The list of hardware manufacturers affected by the recent Realtek vulnerabilities is rather long: AsusTEK, Belkin, D-Link, Edimax, Hama, Logitec, Netgear and many more equip their Wi-Fi devices with vulnerable software development kits (SDKs) from Realtek.

Hundreds of thousands of devices affected, yet manufacturers hardly ever question their supply chains.

Wifi inspector results screen