Security News > 2021 > June > Microsoft finds Netgear router bugs enabling corporate breaches
Attackers could use critical firmware vulnerabilities discovered by Microsoft in some NETGEAR router models as a stepping stone to move laterally within enterprise networks.
They allow unauthenticated attackers to access unpatched routers' management pages via authentication bypass, gain access to secrets stored on the device, and derive saved router credentials using a cryptographic side-channel attack.
The three bugs "Can compromise a network's security-opening the gates for attackers to roam untethered through an entire organization," Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team's Jonathan Bar Or explains.
The security issues were discovered by Microsoft's researchers while reviewing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's new device discovery fingerprinting capabilities after noticing that a DGN2200v1 router's management port was being accessed by another device on the network.
"In our research, we unpacked the router firmware and found three vulnerabilities that can be reliably exploited."
Last year, security researchers also discovered a zero-day vulnerability in 79 Netgear router models allowing remote attackers to take full control of vulnerable devices.