Malware damaging ASUS routers?

[iFrogMac]

I did, I've never seen previously in my router channels 149 upwards, I won't use them and call it a day

Sounds good, you might want to also check to see if your regulations have changed so you won't be limiting yourself unnecessarily going forward, if you're now able to legally use them.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I thought the UK regulations were the same as the EU.

No they're different slightly now.

I've had UNII-3 channels as long as I can remember. I am getting on a bit now though.

You previously stated that you only have those additional channels because you've modified the nvram variables to get them.

 

[Ripshod]

No they're different slightly now.


You previously stated that you only have those additional channels because you've modified the nvram variables to get them.

That totally slipped my mind. You remember that?
No, this is a different router. Messing with nvram totally screwed the router up.
*edit* I've been back and edited.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Well, I don't what Asus did, but my router is now illegal in europe:

View attachment 62747

149 Band is forbidden in UE

Interesting first report! Given ASUS firmware, maybe their fix overlooked something. Or maybe your particular router was/is not in its proper market, thanks to globalization or stressed/crossed/corrupt supply chains.

OE

 

[CrashXRu]

Тех9​

The problem is solved by 50%
Wi-Fi works
The router is restored from the template in the firmware
A fake MAC address is generated
PIN code 12345670
Region of a non-existent country YY/20
Debug mode is disabled, this is important

I would suggest that all damaged devices be set to the territorial region AA/02 - mainland China, but there is a menu for selecting regions and among them are the USA, Europe and Asia

MAC address should be looked for here

cat /proc/nvram/BaseMacAddr
cat /proc/environment/ethaddr
cat /sys/class/net/eth*/address

 

[Tech9]

The problem is solved by 50%

At least the routers are in working order now, not e-waste.

 

[CrashXRu]

At least the routers are in working order now, not e-waste.

Yes, this is a good step towards solving the issue

There are problems, these routers will not work correctly in AiMesh

 

[iFrogMac]

Yes, this is a good step towards solving the issue

There are problems, these routers will not work correctly in AiMesh

I'm not sure if my RT-AX86U ever worked correctly as an AIMesh node. Even though I don't think it ever experienced this issue, it kept going between an AIMesh node and AP based on how it showed up in the main router. Usually in AIMesh, it doesn't show up in the clients list, but as an AP, it does. That's how I knew something was going on. Anyway, I updated it's firmware to the patched release from Nov 28, hard factory reset it with the WPS button, and put it away for a backup in case the BE92U gives me issues, I can set up the RT-AX86U fresh.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Was thinking about this - what if the RFCal values were nuked...

How to recover devices in the field?

As you know, the factory records everything, so the median and mean averages for RFCal are known, so one could generate a ballpark set of values to rewrite the RF cal values in the field...

From an FCC and EU-RED perspective - over in unlicensed space, once the radio is certified, there's a fair amount of latitude... obviously if we change something in the radio on a design view, we have to submit a permissive change request (which is usually approved)...

Not sure, but that data should be stored in the WiFi chips no? Most chips can have an OTP, I presumed this data was stored there, so it can't be wiped.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Well, I don't what Asus did, but my router is now illegal in europe:

View attachment 62747

149 Band is forbidden in UE

Uhm, no. However, it is extremely power limited.

List of WLAN channels - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[TheLostSwede]

I thought the UK regulations were the same as the EU. I've had UNII-3 channels as long as I've used this current router. Before that though I did force UNII-3 through an nvram hack that eventually screwed the router up.

The UK allows for higher transmit power in some of the upper 5 GHz channels and have a different regulations for channel 138 and 142.

List of WLAN channels - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[sfx2000]

Not sure, but that data should be stored in the WiFi chips no? Most chips can have an OTP, I presumed this data was stored there, so it can't be wiped.

Depends - some chipsets store internally, some go back to either MTD partitions or board files loaded as part up the device FW...

I'm a bit old-school, as ath9k devices definitely stored RF cal, along with MAC addresses over in the ART partition in flash... smoke the ART, and you lose everything...

ath10k, ath11k - can go either way, even putting thing into the Device Tree file, which isn't wise, but that's that I suppose...

 

[iFrogMac]

@Tech9 had told me the RT-AX86U had several chipset revisions when it came to Ethernet ports, not sure if this also applies to the wireless / CPU or not, but is there a way to see which hardware mine has? Also, mine is the Gundam edition vs the standard black with red highlights.
I was curious if the special edition used different hardware revisions from the standard, or if it's all the same? It seems like after the special editions of the RT-AX82U, and 86U, Asus hasn't done any current ones.

 

[paliyoes]

Тех9​

The problem is solved by 50%
Wi-Fi works
The router is restored from the template in the firmware
A fake MAC address is generated
PIN code 12345670
Region of a non-existent country YY/20
Debug mode is disabled, this is important

I would suggest that all damaged devices be set to the territorial region AA/02 - mainland China, but there is a menu for selecting regions and among them are the USA, Europe and Asia

MAC address should be looked for here

cat /proc/nvram/BaseMacAddr
cat /proc/environment/ethaddr
cat /sys/class/net/eth*/address

what do you mean, mate? how can I set the country code? was it not supposed to be restricted what region can you select?

 

[CrashXRu]

what do you mean, mate? how can I set the country code? was it not supposed to be restricted what region can you select?

this is an appeal to Merlin
i think he understands what i'm talking about

 

[paliyoes]

Today suddendly the router is behaving as it should and it's not showing the forbidden wifi channels of my country:

 

[giosita]

Today suddendly the router is behaving as it should and it's not showing the forbidden wifi channels of my country:

View attachment 62770

Strange behavior, but it's certainly another step forward; could it be that the new firmware carries out procedures step by step, first restoring a 'basic' Wi-Fi functionality with standard parameters, and then, through some kind of dialogue between the router and Asus, loading the correct configuration based on the market for which the router was produced?

Either way, good!

I still maintain, however, that it would be nice to know exactly what happened from their side

 

[paliyoes]

I just checked, and the MAC labeled on the outside of the router is different from the one on the asus control panel, do you guys know any way to actually set this correctly?

 

[paliyoes]

I also checked the country codes of my router and looks like it is set to US:

nvram dump | grep _country_code
wl0_country_code=US
wl1_country_code=US
wl_country_code=US

It is a bit weird, innit?

 

[Tech9]

If the router is set to US the list of available channels shown in post #256 is incorrect. What's the channel bandwidth set to?