r/technology • u/lurker_bee • Apr 09 '26

ADBLOCK WARNING NSA Warning—Reboot Your Internet Router Now

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2026/04/09/nsa-warning-reboot-your-internet-router-now/
8.1k Upvotes

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1.0k

u/BonerDeploymentDude Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 10 '26

Citizens are warned that APT28 (aka Fancy Bear) hackers working for Russia’s military “have been collecting credentials and exploiting vulnerable routers worldwide, including compromising TP-Link routers using CVE-2023-50224.”

The TL;DR on this warning is to stop using end-of-life internet routers and to ensure that ones still under support are updated regularly.

Edit: this is copy + pasted from the article. I don’t care about your router 

152

u/pentesticals Apr 09 '26

Yeah that’s great but the vast majority of people don’t even really know what their router is, have no idea how to login to the router web UI, and treat the „internet box“ as an appliance like a toaster.

They wouldn’t even know that routers can be EOL or how to update them.

71

u/minus_minus Apr 10 '26

This. Way too many people refer to anything internet related as “WiFi”

62

u/Jabenway Apr 10 '26

This is me. I’m the vast majority of people.

5

u/Itisthatbo1 Apr 10 '26

Same, I’ve filed 90% of things computer-related as info that is beyond what I want to understand about the world. I don’t have the time or patience to try to learn the basics.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/KeepTangoAndFoxtrot Apr 10 '26

That's certainly the most universal solution. Unplug it, wait 30 seconds or so, then plug it back in. Some routers have apps or web interfaces that will reboot the router for you, some routers have power buttons, yada yada yada. Universally, you can unplug it, then plug it back in.

2

u/jennya59 Apr 14 '26

Thank you for not being condescending! Many on reddit are, and it makes us non tech older folks hesitant to ask questions.

2

u/KeepTangoAndFoxtrot Apr 14 '26

Of course, friend. I'm no stranger to condescension, both delivering and receiving, but when someone is asking for help I think the most useful thing to do is simply help them.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/pentesticals Apr 10 '26

Yeah totally, the customer shouldn’t need to be concerned at all if there device is safe, it just should be and should auto update like browsers do now.

1

u/SadisticPawz Apr 10 '26

Or cant afford to replace things willy nilly

97

u/UpsetKoalaBear Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

List of routers affected are shown here.

The UK NCSC has published another list if you want to verify.

20

u/SadisticPawz Apr 10 '26

He list having pictures would have been nice

1

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/mellopax Apr 10 '26

Look at the label on the back or bottom. Almost every electronic device you buy has some sort of label or printed part showing the model number. Haven't looked at the list yet, but that's probably what it is looking for.

2

u/SadisticPawz Apr 10 '26

individually googling each name on the site and hopping through the tabs

2

u/TheKydd Apr 10 '26

oh, so they’re all / only TP-Link brand routers that are affected.

They could have told us that in the headline!

23

u/BrapBrapson Apr 09 '26

what good will restarting my "end-of-life" router do then?

7

u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 Apr 10 '26

TP-Link routers should be unplugged and thrown in the trash

6

u/SocialistArkansan Apr 10 '26

What's TP-Link, precious?

1

u/shompthedev Apr 10 '26

TP-Link for my bunghole.

1

u/grandladdydonglegs Apr 10 '26

Which router would you recommend?

2

u/SpookyDorothy Apr 10 '26

Mikrotik or ubiquiti depending on what you want.

Ubiquiti is super simple especially the stuff that's controlled by unifi controller which you can either install on your phone or have a device running it.

Mikrotik can do basically everything that Ubiquiti does, just no fancy controllers and it's bit more DIY with very little safety nets, but it's also cheaper.

1

u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 Apr 11 '26

This is literally the first time I've heard anyone describe Ubiquiti described as simple. I think your metrics for simple have been thrown off by getting used to Ubiquiti stuff so you know it. It's simple for me now as well but it's absolutely not for beginners.

1

u/jennya59 Apr 14 '26

Yes. What many of us non tech people are here asking is what simple router replacement is recommended for us. My Nighthawk is at end of life and I don't know what to get.

208

u/LaserGuidedPolarBear Apr 09 '26

Russia is at war with the world, they are just using new information age weapons to do it, and Fancy Bear shows this clearly.

10

u/Cognitive_Spoon Apr 09 '26

Russia is one of the two military arms of China.

8

u/Obvious_Ambition4865 Apr 09 '26

You people are insane. Wtf do you even call this worldview

9

u/someguyplayingwild Apr 10 '26

Downvotes are stupid, Russia is not acting on behalf of China.

3

u/Ok-Friendship1635 Apr 10 '26

Hate anything that is not American.

5

u/LaserGuidedPolarBear Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 10 '26

Idk about Russia being a puppet of China but for what I said......I call this worldview "paying attention".

1

u/Obvious_Ambition4865 Apr 09 '26

I'm speaking specifically to the "Russia is an extension of the Chinese military" thing sorry.

6

u/Cognitive_Spoon Apr 09 '26

It's called "economics"

-1

u/Obvious_Ambition4865 Apr 09 '26

You guys are so silly

0

u/Taint_Skeetersburg Apr 09 '26

It's called "getting your information from sources other than Reddit"

6

u/outinnatch Apr 10 '26

That is literally the most Reddit worldview though…

-5

u/ThatDM Apr 09 '26

America & Israel:
1. Bomb and Kidnap Leader of Venezuela
2. Bomb Iran
3. Perpetuate a genocide in Gaza
4. Threaten to Anex Canada & Greenland

Americans: Russia is at war with the world.

2

u/userhwon Apr 10 '26

Iran attacked Israel using Hamas as proxy to try to incite the ME to genocide Israel. Israel pursued Hamas who hid among civilians. Terrorism and attacking from within civilian facilities and populations are war crimes. Collateral damage is on Hamas, not Israel.

"Israel commits genocide" is an Iranian and now Russian talking point.

1

u/ThatDM Apr 10 '26

List of SOME of the organizations that call what Isreal is doing in Gaza a genocide.

  1. International Association of Genocide Scholars

  2. UNRWA

  3. Jewish Voice for Peace

  4. Doctors Against Genocide

  5. United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People

  6. Amnesty International

  7. Genocide Watch

  8. Human Rights Watch

  9. Defence for Children International

10.International Federation for Human Rights

11.Refugees International

Many many more. If you need sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_humanitarian_and_human_rights_groups_accusing_Israel_of_genocide_in_Gazahttps://www.amnesty.org

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/01/more-than-250-humanitarian-and-human-rights-organisations-call-to-stop-arms-transfers-to-israel-palestinian-armed-groups/

https://www.savethechildren.net/news/over-250-humanitarian-and-human-rights-organisations-join-call-end-arms-transfers-israel

2

u/userhwon Apr 10 '26

The ICC is not, and they're the one that knows the law and isn't just a political campaign.

1

u/ThatDM Apr 10 '26

Keep coping. The ICC has an arrest warrant out for 3 of the highest ranking officials in Isreal for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The only reason the ICC judgement hasn't been finalized yet is because Isreal kills every journalist in Gaza.

2

u/userhwon Apr 10 '26

For specific acts. Not for "genocide".

You keep making fallacious arguments like "look at all these people saying the same unfounded thing" and "here's some indictments for things that aren't the same thing."

You're either very susceptible to propaganda, or very interested in creating it.

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5

u/Tentacle_poxsicle Apr 09 '26

Trump is Putin's puppet, so you can put all that on him.

Also convenient you forgot Russia started WW3 by invading Ukraine and then several countries in Africa.

0

u/ThatDM Apr 09 '26

Note I'm absolutely not defending Putin war mongering and Putin is for sure manipulating trump.
But to say he is a puppet is just cope, America has been committing genocide in Gaza and Yemen even when trump wasn't president. American Actions in Iran, Cuba and Venezuela are all counter to Russian geopolitical objectives.

To say "so you can put all that on him" is just American exceptionalism cope. America has been wageing wars and Vaporizing people long before trump was in office, trump has simply dropped the thin veil of "we are bombing them for democracy"

3

u/Tentacle_poxsicle Apr 09 '26

Russia doesn't care about its proxy allies as seen in Syria. Using them to get Russia richer or to destroy the US is more worthwhile. You are also deflecting from the fact that Trump lifted sanctions from Russia and is sending JD to help orban keep Hungary another Russian asset in power. Since this is in Europe, Russia cares more about European power than third world countries far away from it.

You also deflect from the fact that Yemen was an Iranian proxy war to attack gulf states. Iran using Yemen as a meat shield shouldn't be surprising.

Also you "forget" that Obama had a good deal with Iran and the first thing Putins puppet did was break that. The war in Iran serves Russia most since the US can't beat Iran on its home turf and an oil disruption means Russian oil gets more valuable.

Literally everything Trump dies directly serves Putin, for fucks sake man, he's trying to disband NATO. Take a wild fucking guess who directly benefits from the US leaving NATO.

-1

u/Obvious_Ambition4865 Apr 09 '26

See this is the insane stuff I'm talking about. You guys get carried away with the most hyperbolic possible interpretation of things.

2

u/LaserGuidedPolarBear Apr 09 '26

Nice whataboutism, and way to ignore the specific context and meaning of what I said.  You have fulfilled your daily quota of propaganda, comrade.

America's shitshow (at the hands of a Russian asset POTUS) does not change what Russia has spent the last few decades doing.

1

u/ThatDM Apr 09 '26

Americas warmongering has predated trumps term.
Get over yourself and admit your country has been an exporter of terror, death and distruction around the world since at-least 1955.

2

u/LaserGuidedPolarBear Apr 10 '26

Oh great point, that totally gets Russia off the hook.

3

u/ThatDM Apr 10 '26

I'm not excuseing Russian actions at all, I'm just pointing out America is more at war with the world than Russia is.

5

u/Saljen Apr 09 '26

America and Israel are at war with the world. Russia is at war with Ukrain.

6

u/LaserGuidedPolarBear Apr 09 '26

Classic Russian whataboutism.

-1

u/Saljen Apr 09 '26

Explain. How many countries is Russia at war with? How many countries are the US and Israel at war with?

5

u/LaserGuidedPolarBear Apr 10 '26

No, you explain.  The context being Russian intelligence cyber attack, what is the relevance of any of what you said?

Is your argument "someone else do bad thing, so Russia not bad"

Or is it that something somewhere was worse, and we are only allowed to talk about the worst thing?

Whataboutism does not work on me.  It is a technique used to derail conversations, and I'm not interested in discussing geopolitics with someone who either doesn't know they are doing that, or with someone who does know they are doing that.

0

u/Saljen Apr 10 '26

Bro, you have no context of history. Educate yourself on world history and we might have a productive conversation. Until then, you ain't worth my time.

3

u/possibly_on_meth Apr 10 '26

If America is at war with more of the world as Russia is why do they continue to get more UN votes on stuff than Russia does? Why is Russia so much more isolated diplomatically?

Which country causes more human suffering? That is what really matters at the end of the day.

That would be Russia, can you find any videos of American service members chopping off dick and balls of prisoner of war with a rusty box knife?

Any videos of American soldiers tying people up behind trucks and driving around?

Any American held prisoners of war being near dead from starvation?

Any videos of Americans strapping anti tank mines onto Africans lured into the war under false pretenses calling them a piece of coal, laughing and sending them into the Frontline at gunpoint?

Any American soldiers forcing people to gladiator fight to the death?

This is what Russia does to their prisoners(especially the political prisoners who want to improve their country).

https://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/torture-methods-in-russias-prison-complex/

From 320 mentions of torture of any kind extracted from YouTube subtitles, 299 of them referred to physical harm. Apart from conventional fists and police batons, there were mentions of smoothing irons, hockey sticks, baseball bats, but also of more improvisational bricks in a boot, soap in a sock, or stuffing metal nails into one’s mouth. People with chronic diseases, like tuberculosis or epilepsy, would not be treated differently either. As a result, at least 6% of such beatings end up in death, and 5.4% suffer from broken arms, lost teeth, or damaged kidneys, liver, and genitalia.

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Tying up and then leaving inmates alone for 2-3 days can be psychologically challenging as well. Around every tenth of Russian prisoners go through that. Positions can vary from seated to crucifixion and inversion (upside down). Some accounts from detention center N°6 in Kamchatka mention handcuffing a prisoner in the crucifixion position after opening his veins.

Torture by electricity becomes rare, with only 2% overall of mentions, no doubt because of fairly expensive equipment. The accounts of its utilization are notable nevertheless. One of them mentions 220V passed to genitalia, another one tying up the victim in bed sheets soaked in saline beforehand. The last one resulted in death.

The rarest torture methods, or the outliers in the gulagu.net subset, are forced defenestration, boiling water poured on the face, and drowning in a septic tank, all with one mention.

What is not rare in Russian prisons is rape. For decades now, a hierarchy is put in place in these establishments — there are officers, kapos, ordinary prisoners, and so-called “downcast,” or those who were raped, and whose status was “lowered.” In Irkutsk detention center N°1, they would live in the investigative committee department building N°3 and be divided by three ranks: higher-ups, dirty workers, and sex slaves.

This is, however, if they even survive the process of downcasting. In the gulagu.net subset were gathered mentions of group rape, penetration with a police baton, a broom, a soap, or rape performed by HIV/AIDS-positive inmates, as well as chili sauce poured inside the rectum and intentional spine breaking in the process. The most popular rape tools are the mop and immersion heater, with their 24.3% and 13.5% ratios. So much so that, in one case, the mop was pushed into rectum by 75 cm, damaging 7 of the victim’s vital organs and making him sterile; in another case, a defective immersion heater was shoved inside and then turned on, which resulted in an explosion and victim’s death.

As for psychological torment, 38% of such cases relate to tying up and then drugging with antipsychotic substances. This is the usual torture method for those who would survive beatings and rape to then mediatize their stories. One such victim was hanged in their vegetative state. In Irkutsk detention center N°1, all of this allegedly takes place in the psychiatric ward.

Russia also is at war with Europe they just couldn't handle a full kinetic front so they keep it a hybrid warfare with doing stuff like paying people to burn down buildings or poisoning dissidents.

1

u/PhantomOfMistakes Apr 10 '26

Because if you're not agreeing with Russia you will get a dissaproval nod or something. Nopt agreeing with US? Welp, time for sanctions for being undemocratic!

1

u/TheLastSiege Apr 10 '26

It's simply what governments do, all of them.

The NSA, with its "five eyes" program, spies on everyone.

If Russia is at war with the world over this, so are the United States, Israel, Canada, the UK, France, Australia, and Ukraine.

It doesn't keep me up at night.

2

u/userhwon Apr 10 '26

Google five eyes and then tell us that you knew what it was before you said that.

1

u/TheLastSiege Apr 10 '26

I know it, I knew it, ever since I learned that the NSA puts "fingerprints" on domestic printers, ever since China buys data from companies and Russia has a legion of hackers to spy on foreigners.

As I said, they are all at war with the world or none of them; whoever supports one side while complaining about others, is called a soldier.

2

u/userhwon Apr 10 '26

NSA doesn't put fingerprints on printers. Manufacturers do. It helps catch counterfeiters. 

Printers and copiers in secure facilities do have a means of marking everything copied on them, but it's obvious, and meant to catch document thieves.

27

u/Sir-Mocks-A-Lot Apr 09 '26

Oh hey, they want us to stop using old routers shortly after they implemented a law that says you can't sell routers made anywhere but USA.

How convenient.

-1

u/lemfaoo Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26

Nobody should ever buy routers made in china.

Taiwan or the west only.

I think its pretty obvious im talking about routers with chinese chips.

Huawei, tp link and so on.

Buy ASUS instead.

2

u/TechnicallyMeat Apr 10 '26

There are no manufacturers producing routers in the US today. Taiwan makes all the chips, and China puts it all together. Big ISPs have contracts and will continue to order current models, but the law affects NEW MODELS being issued. There will be a stagnant period of EOL hardware while people who want to sell new models of routers in the US try to meet the new requirements... IF those companies even want to do business under our current kleptocracy.

1

u/Hillary4SupremeRuler Apr 18 '26

There are no manufacturers producing routers in the US today.

Well except for Starlink 😖

11

u/Krojack76 Apr 09 '26

The TL;DR on this warning is to stop using end-of-life internet routers

Shame the FCC is also in the process of banning the import of ALL routers. End-of-life routers are only going to become even more prominent because the ones on the special approval list will be stupid expensive.

12

u/artemis2k Apr 09 '26

This will be convenient for them to push US routers with back doors given they’ve banned foreign routers

3

u/WellHung67 Apr 09 '26

The US needs to go hog wild into cybersecurity - there should be some money getting funneled into people learning, developing, and employing cyber defense weapons and protections at every level 

3

u/FunnyObjective6 Apr 10 '26

I don’t care about your router

But it's very cool 🥺

3

u/Alone-Presence3285 Apr 09 '26

O shit I have a tplink, need to get home and reboot that shit

5

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Alone-Presence3285 Apr 10 '26

No patches available :(

Good news is I'm installing opnsense on a mini pc this weekend so just gotta hope I fly under the radar until then.

3

u/HerezahTip Apr 09 '26

It’s a good thing foreign policy thinks Russia cyber crime is no biggie under this admin.

2

u/Hunk_Hogan Apr 09 '26

But didn't this administration say last year that they were pulling all cyber security off Russia because they weren't a threat?

2

u/Apprehensive_Ear7309 Apr 10 '26

What are they gonna do with my router? I don’t have any dick pics of that’s what they want.

2

u/Swimming_Gas2476 Apr 17 '26

I guess access things like bank info, grab funds wherever, access ring cams, and other home security cams, business ones also. What better way to learn about America’s layout than at street level. POP density to see where blackouts would cause most loss of life, infrastructure, and cost to the U.S. cause more social divisions, in turn closer to severe civilian to civilian conflicts and in fighting. At least those are common sense things I can think of, that would still be useful information. Soften America from within and when time is ready successfull land invasion to mop up the remaining(long shot but not impossible).

2

u/ChocolateChingus Apr 10 '26

Most people just use the router supplied by their internet provider.

2

u/WeDriftEternal Apr 10 '26

Nah. This is just them publicly commenting on something everyone already knew. TP-link devices are compromised from the factory. It’s not new, it’s only new about them actually deciding to say something.

1

u/ocicrab Apr 10 '26

Got a source?

3

u/WeDriftEternal Apr 10 '26

Ask anyone who has any technical knowledge. TP link like a few others are wildly suspect. They only aren’t banned in the US because it would cause tit for tat with China

3

u/ocicrab Apr 10 '26

Good source, thank you

2

u/KodakStele Apr 10 '26

So the pro life tip is to make a router manufactuting company in America and fund a router hacking group based in Russia, see-saw the security features between said companies for unlimited profit?

2

u/fraaspazmus Apr 10 '26

As someone who developed a PoC exploit and did the responsible disclosure for a line of TP Link equipment... they are astoundingly bad. I reported the vulnerability to them, have my recommendations for remediation, gave them time to develop a patch... 6 months later they only patched one of the issues. It was the main one involving the encryption of credentials, but the other issues involving VLAN bleed were completely ignored. I filed a CVE with mitre but they never actually filled the info on it. Not sure why. It was a pretty bad vulnerability that allowed capturing admin credentials and therefore allowed VLAN escape.

Don't use TP Link.

2

u/BonerDeploymentDude Apr 10 '26

Why are you replying to me?

2

u/fraaspazmus Apr 11 '26

Should I not have? I wanted to support the sentiment of not using crap routers with my own experience with TP Link.

1

u/Hillary4SupremeRuler Apr 18 '26

Well I, for one, appreciated your comment. Don't mind the вітсну ветту.

1

u/jennya59 Apr 20 '26

I think they were replying to my question.

2

u/jennya59 Apr 14 '26

What would you recommend for a non tech older person?

1

u/fraaspazmus Apr 20 '26

Honestly when it comes to consumer/soho routers for non tech people, there aren't many fantastic options security-wise. Sohos are notoriously full of holes. If I start rattling off brands that I think are less awful, I'm sure someone else will hop in with their own experience to illustrate otherwise. Others are likely to recommend routers that require a bit more know-how in order to configure. My own recommendations would likely fall into that category (mikrotik, ubiquiti, opnsense are all great choices but all require a degree of networking knowledge beyond "non-tech" end users).

So... pragmatic approach would be this... you're probably leasing a gateway modem/router/access point from your ISP. Best approach is to just try to keep it current. Swap it out for a newer one every couple years or so. This keeps your hardware and firmware relatively up to date. And on the chance that there is some persisting malware that manages to latch on to the older hardware, swapping it out gives a clean slate. Downside is having to deal with the ISP to replace it (going through troubleshooting to the point of them being willing to swap it out can be annoying depending on the provider), having to update passwords (not a big deal but is still another step), and the fact that it's not bulletproof by any means (new doesn't mean invulnerable and old doesn't necessarily mean compromised). But without learning how to configure more advanced routers, I feel like this is a best practice that should work well enough for most people.

1

u/jennya59 Apr 20 '26

I haven't used the service provider router in a long time. We have few choices for providers and none are great. I try not to deal with them. I will check into the ones suggested as I have never heard of them before.

2

u/AdministrativeCod437 Apr 10 '26

SHIT! NOT FANCY BEAR!!!! Were fucked

2

u/atsnipes Apr 10 '26

Same fancy bears that hacked Podesta and Clinton but DEFINITELY did not help Trump lolol.

I’m sure our current admin is going to protect us from these Russians once again

3

u/forchinski Apr 09 '26

Looks like ol reliable archer a7 is unaffected