Telneting a router remotely

[James]

I was playing around today and just for sh*ts and giggles randomly telneted a 165.165.84.* and was greeted with a lovely login screen. This was a unpleasant suprise as most people probably still use the default password and username.

Question 1 : What can be gained by accesing the router (besides the ability to totally screw the settings up). Can you gain access to the network remotely and what risks are posed.

<b>NB POINT, it is sticky at the top BUT PLEASE CHANGE YOUR ROUTER LOGIN INFOMATION. If you do not know I can make a step by step guide.</b>

There is no peace without war!!!

 

[mbs]

Hhrrmmph... if you want to access somebody else's network via an open router, you're nothing but a criminal - there's nothing to be gained for the honest netizen, except the potential satisfaction gleaned from warning the administrators of such network, that they have a problem.

This is one of the big problems I have with Telkrap - an honest and customer-facing business would warn their clients about this, and actively take steps to fix this situation with them. Instead, we have the situation where unconfirmed evidence points to internal Telkrap staff abusing customer accounts, due to their ready access to customer user logon and password details, which are unable to be changed by the customer...