Rootkit For Cisco Routers Developed

Rootkit For Cisco Routers Developed

Friday, May 16, 2008 - by Chad Weirick
The FBI recently uncovered approximately 3500 fake Cisco systems routers in government networks, but that isn’t the end of the problem.  Now it seems that Cisco routers may soon come under attack by rootkits:

"A security researcher has developed malicious rootkit software for Cisco's routers, a development that has placed increasing scrutiny on the routers that carry the majority of the Internet's traffic.

Sebastian Muniz, a researcher with Core Security Technologies, developed the software, which he will unveil on May 22 at the EuSecWest conference in London."

Considering how many Cisco products are in use in various ISPs, hosts, and even backbones, this could be a massive problem for anyone who's life or work is tied to the internet in some way.

Even if the government does replace all the imitation routers with genuine Cisco components, they’re still potentially at risk.  Do we hear the sound of litigators writing up stronger bills to put hackers in jail?  We think we do…
Via: Network World | News Archive
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By digitaldd on May 16, 2008

This isn't new, there have been counterfeit Cisco hardware reports for years. I have even seen Cisco switches and routers act unstable with  genuine Cisco modules in them which were purchased from authorized dealers. It turned out the modules were counterfeit and either didn't work when the IOS was updated or they failed prematurely. In most cases the authorized dealers made good on the counterfeit hardware.

 

Now they're adding malware to the counterfeit gear. 

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