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Linksys Velop routers send Wi-Fi passwords in plaintext to US servers (stackdiary.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

43 comments fedilink hide all child comments

During installation, the router sent several data packets to an Amazon server in the US. These packets contained the configured SSID name and password in clear text, as well as some identification tokens for this network within a broader database and an access token for a user session that could potentially enable a MITM attack.

Linksys has refused to acknowledge/respond to the issue.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (12 children)

What does this mean, that the use plain HTTP or some other protocol? I can't see details.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 4 months ago (9 children)

Two important points raised:

Why is Linksys sending your Wifi details, as well as your private password, outside of your home
If they're doing it, why are they sending your critically important private information unencrypted onto the public internet

The answer to the first one may be semi-legit as these are mesh products. As in, the other nodes in the mesh will need this information, and it appears that Linksys has decided to store your security data in AWS for the other mesh nodes to retrieve it when you're setting it up. I'd sure as hell like to know this before the product does this. Further, I'd much prefer to simply attached to each mesh node myself to input the secured credentials instead of sending them outside to the internet.

There's not excuse for Linksys sending the creds unencrypted onto the internet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (6 children)

I'm just finding no confirmation that they send them unencrypted over the Internet and I've seen "researchers" calling sending passwords over HTTPS "unencrypted."

Mesh coordination is interesting. It's not great. That said I doubt that any off-the-shelf consumer mesh system does go through the work to keep things local-only. It's too easy to setup a cloud API and therefore likely all of them do that since it's the cheapest.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

How would they know that the device sends the SSID and password otherwise? If it was encrypted you would not be able to read the content of the packages.