Stefan Mileschin

Security experts have warned that home wi-fi routers are easy to hack and the only way to secure them is completely out of users' hands.

A report, written by research firm Independent Security Evaluators of Baltimore, found that 13 of the most popular off-the-shelf wireless routers could be exploited by a "moderately skilled adversary with LAN or WLAN access".

There is nothing that users can do about it as it is up to router vendors to improve their products.

Apparently all 13 routers tested could be hijacked from the local network, with four of those requiring no active management session.

Most of them could be taken over from a WAN and two did not need an active management session to do it.

All 14 of the devices had critical security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a "remote adversary".

ISE plans to release additional information from the study in the coming weeks.

ISE security analyst Jake Holcomb said he had notified all vendors about all the vulnerabilities.

Some vendors, Holcomb said, got back to ISE quickly and had beta firmware with fixes ready to test within 72 hours. Others have not replied.

http://news.techeye.net/security/wi-...-easy-to-crack