Brave New World: Pervasive Insecurity of Embedded Network Devices

Embedded network devices have become a ubiquitous fixture in the modern home, office as well as in the global communication infrastructure. Devices like routers, NAS appliances, home entertainment appliances, Wi-Fi access points, web cams; VoIP appliances, print servers and video conferencing units reside on the same networks as personal computers and enterprise servers and together form world-wide communication infrastructure. Widely deployed and often misconfigured, they constitute highly attractive targets for exploitation. This paper presents the results of a vulnerability assessment of embedded network devices within the world's largest ISPs and civilian networks, spanning North America, Europe and Asia.