Well, it looks like I need to reset my Router

**Easto** · 03-21-22, 09:00 AM

My router is on this list....

https://www.techspot.com/news/93850-...ting-asus.html

It was about time to reset my passwords on this router anyway.

**Philip** · 03-21-22, 04:30 PM

Thanks for Sharing.

The interesting part is that both Trend Micro and ASUS are very vague about the infection vector, and current firmwares are not excluded. Cyclops Blink botnet malware has plagued governments, WatchGuard firewalls, now ASUS routers and who knows what else, it has been linked by the Sandworm group, allegedly linked to Russian intelligence.

From what I've read about its previous iterations with WatchGuard, the risk was only to devices that allow remote management with default/weak passwords, something not even mentioned in the ASUS/Trend Micro advisories.

**Easto** · 03-26-22, 06:54 PM

This morning I reset everything as advised in the article. I renamed and re-passworded (is that a word?) every account. New Router name and password, new PSK and guest account passwords. All wireless accounts AP Isolated. All passwords hardened to my usual standards. One thing that I did notice that after this complete reset my Router is using about 1/2 the memory that it was using before.

I'd really like to find a source that explains what some of the advanced settings are and mean and what if any I should have set to other than their default.

**Philip** · 03-27-22, 07:35 AM

Some of the "advanced" wireless router settings are described in the second half of this article: https://www.speedguide.net/articles/...ed-tweaks-5681

As to the amount of memory, this is somewhat typical of Linux machines, they tend to consume as much memory as needed, and not release it until needed by other processes. This can even be controlled with a "swappiness" command-line control parameter. Since most routers use a Liniux fork, I imagine it is the same behavior. Over time you will see increased use of memory, it does not mean that there is a memory leak or higher usage necessarily, just that there is no other process needing it, so Linux does not release it, even though it can be freed as needed.

**Easto** · 04-01-22, 08:05 AM

Asus provided a firmware update. I check my router yesterday and it was telling me one was available and that it was addressing the problems mentioned in the aritcle.