Vulnerability Note VU#212088

Overview

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) has recently discovered several vulnerabilities in the Alcatel Speed Touch line of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) modems. These vulnerabilities are the result of weak authentication and access control policies and result in one or more of the following impacts: unauthorized access, unauthorized monitoring, information leakage, denial of service, and permanent disability of affected devices.

The SDSC has published additional information regarding these vulnerabilities at http://security.sdsc.edu/self-help/alcatel/.

Description

The Alcatel Speed Touch ADSL modem ships with a null default password, permitting unauthenticated access via TELNET, HTTP, and FTP. As with the EXPERT account vulnerability (VU#243592), the device must have an externally accessible IP address.

Impact

Unless the user or internet service provider changes the default password of an affected device, a remote attacker can access the modem via TELNET, HTTP, or FTP. In the case of TELNET and HTTP, this vulnerability grants the attacker read and write access to device configuration. For FTP, this vulnerability allows the attacker to browse the file structure of the affected device.

Solution

Set a password for your ADSL modem Because the Alcatel ADSL modems ship without a password by default, an attacker may be able to gain access if this password has not been set. Users are encouraged to set a password when the device is first configured.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
Alcatel	Affected	10 Apr 2001	10 Apr 2001

If you are a vendor and your product is affected, let us know.

CVSS Metrics (Learn More)

Group	Score	Vector
Base	N/A	N/A
Temporal	N/A	N/A
Environmental	N/A	N/A

References

• http://security.sdsc.edu/self-help/alcatel/
• http://www.alcatel.com/consumer/dsl/security.htm

Credit

The CERT Coordination Center would like to thank Tom Perrine and Tsutomu Shimomura of the San Diego Supercomputer Center for notifying us about this problem and their help in constructing this advisory.

This document is based on research by the SDSC and was written by Cory Cohen and Jeffrey P. Lanza.

Other Information

• CVE IDs: Unknown
• CERT Advisory: CA-2001-08
• Date Public: 10 Apr 2001
• Date First Published: 10 Apr 2001
• Date Last Updated: 11 Apr 2001
• Severity Metric: 42.00
• Document Revision: 12