04-30-2019, 12:34 PM
** 30-Apr-2019 World View: Huawei 'backdoor' found in routers sold to Vodafone
It has emerged that the giant European telecom firm Vodafone Group Plc
discovered hidden "backdoors" in routers and other networking
equipment installed by Huawei in the latter part of the 2000s decade.
The backdoor uses the Telnet protocol, which is an ancient protocol
originally developed in 1969 to allow dumb terminals to communicate
with IBM mainframe computers over an open phone line. Since then,
it's evolved to run on top of other networking protocols, such as
TCP/IP. It used to be that telnet was often installed in networking
equipment to permit maintenance people to access the equipment and
configure it without requiring passwords and bypassing other security.
However, because of its lack of security, it's been mostly abandoned
for that purpose since the late 1990s.
Vodafone first discovered the breach in 2009, and asked Huawei to
remove the Telnet support. Huawei promised to do so, and later said
that it had been removed. But subsequent Vodafone investigations in
2011-12 revealed that the Telnet code was still implemented. Huawei
then refused to remove it, claiming that it was necessary for support.
Huawei claims that Telnet is routinely used by all companies,
including Cisco.
Another argument being used is that Huawei has extremely sloppy coding
standards, resulting in lots of bugs, and that Telnet is still being
used for that reason. This is an interesting argument in support of
Huawei, but it only adds to the concern that any of these bugs might
be used to hack the device.
The Vodafone situation is being described by some analysts as "smoking
gun" proof that Huawei installs backdoors. Huawei claims that Telnet
is used only for configuration and maintenance, not for hacking.
Vodafone is on the side of Huawei, and continues to install Huawei
devices.
This comes after the discovery last year that Huawei was hacking into
African Union servers that Huawei had installed in 2012, and was
stealing data until discovered in 2018.
My own view, as I've described many times, based on my years of
experience developing board level operating systems for embedded
systems, and based on China's legal requirement that all companies
cooperate with and provide intelligence to the military, is that
Huawei has been installing undetectable backdoors for years. Using
Telnet is pretty easily detected, so that isn't what I was referring
to. It's possible that Huawei used Telnet in the early days, but
starting around 2010 began to implement more sophisticated
undetectable backdoors.
![[Image: -1x-1.png]](https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/ifEcxRRIdZ1Q/v0/-1x-1.png)
![[Image: -1x-1.png]](https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i3UsKS5SJ5xQ/v0/-1x-1.png)
![[Image: -1x-1.png]](https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/ilh43S3U4AOM/v1/-1x-1.png)
-- Vodafone Found Hidden Backdoors in Huawei Equipment
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...-equipment
(Bloomberg, 30-Apr-2019)
-- The African Union headquarters hack and Australia’s 5G network
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-af...g-network/
(Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 13-Jul-2018)
It has emerged that the giant European telecom firm Vodafone Group Plc
discovered hidden "backdoors" in routers and other networking
equipment installed by Huawei in the latter part of the 2000s decade.
The backdoor uses the Telnet protocol, which is an ancient protocol
originally developed in 1969 to allow dumb terminals to communicate
with IBM mainframe computers over an open phone line. Since then,
it's evolved to run on top of other networking protocols, such as
TCP/IP. It used to be that telnet was often installed in networking
equipment to permit maintenance people to access the equipment and
configure it without requiring passwords and bypassing other security.
However, because of its lack of security, it's been mostly abandoned
for that purpose since the late 1990s.
Vodafone first discovered the breach in 2009, and asked Huawei to
remove the Telnet support. Huawei promised to do so, and later said
that it had been removed. But subsequent Vodafone investigations in
2011-12 revealed that the Telnet code was still implemented. Huawei
then refused to remove it, claiming that it was necessary for support.
Huawei claims that Telnet is routinely used by all companies,
including Cisco.
Another argument being used is that Huawei has extremely sloppy coding
standards, resulting in lots of bugs, and that Telnet is still being
used for that reason. This is an interesting argument in support of
Huawei, but it only adds to the concern that any of these bugs might
be used to hack the device.
The Vodafone situation is being described by some analysts as "smoking
gun" proof that Huawei installs backdoors. Huawei claims that Telnet
is used only for configuration and maintenance, not for hacking.
Vodafone is on the side of Huawei, and continues to install Huawei
devices.
This comes after the discovery last year that Huawei was hacking into
African Union servers that Huawei had installed in 2012, and was
stealing data until discovered in 2018.
My own view, as I've described many times, based on my years of
experience developing board level operating systems for embedded
systems, and based on China's legal requirement that all companies
cooperate with and provide intelligence to the military, is that
Huawei has been installing undetectable backdoors for years. Using
Telnet is pretty easily detected, so that isn't what I was referring
to. It's possible that Huawei used Telnet in the early days, but
starting around 2010 began to implement more sophisticated
undetectable backdoors.
- Countries embracing or banning Huawei (Bloomberg)
- Huawei international market share, 2013-2018 (Bloomberg)
- Huawei's competition (Bloomberg)
-- Vodafone Found Hidden Backdoors in Huawei Equipment
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...-equipment
(Bloomberg, 30-Apr-2019)
-- The African Union headquarters hack and Australia’s 5G network
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-af...g-network/
(Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 13-Jul-2018)
