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NETGEAR INC. vs. Krack WPA-2 vunerability

GeminiJ13
Aspirant

NETGEAR INC. vs. Krack WPA-2 vunerability

Dear NETGEAR,

 

I can't even e-mail you to shame you on why it is that you haven't gotten a patch out to us to fix this CRITICAL vunerability with our routers.  Are you that afraid of your owners that you wont even allow us to contact you?  Am I going to PAY YOU for calling; which is what your system suggested that I do if I didn't want to use the community forums or search your "Knowledge Base".  Why would I even consider buying one of your products in the future if you aren't going to provide support in the most critical of circumstances?  The answer is, that I will not.  Thanks for not wanting to keep me as a customer.

 

P.S.- Unbelievable that you don't even have my model of router in the list to choose from above.  What kind of company are you running anyway?  Doesn't matter really as ALL OF YOUR ROUTERS NEED TO BE PATCHED THAT USE WPA-2 ENCRIPTION!

Model: WNR1000-2VCNAS|RangeMax 150 Wireless Router (WNR1000 | Comcast)
Message 1 of 4

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TheEther
Guru

Re: NETGEAR INC. vs. Krack WPA-2 vunerability

There is a lot of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) and misinformation going around about KRACK.

 

It may help you to know that KRACK generally targets Wi-Fi clients, such as smartphones, laptops and PC's with Wi-Fi adapters. Also affected are range extenders/repeaters, which also effectively work as clients.

 

Routers and Access Points (AP) are generally not affected, unless they support fast transition, or if they are reconfigured to function as a bridge, range extender or repeater. Most of Netgear's routers don't support fast transition. AFAIK, the only exception is Orbi, and even there I believe fast transition can be disabled.  So, while there is cause to be concerned about KRACK, the fault generally doesn't lie with your router.

 

As to support, yeah, Netgear's support leaves a little something to be desired, but it's probably par for the course for many companies to be difficult to reach. Live support is expensive and frankly not all that helpful. Answers are usually available on the Internet or here on this forum if you search. It wasn't very hard to find one of Netgear's advisories on KRACK:
https://kb.netgear.com/000049498/Security-Advisory-for-WPA-2-Vulnerabilities-PSV-2017-2826-PSV-2017-...

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Message 2 of 4

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TheEther
Guru

Re: NETGEAR INC. vs. Krack WPA-2 vunerability

There is a lot of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) and misinformation going around about KRACK.

 

It may help you to know that KRACK generally targets Wi-Fi clients, such as smartphones, laptops and PC's with Wi-Fi adapters. Also affected are range extenders/repeaters, which also effectively work as clients.

 

Routers and Access Points (AP) are generally not affected, unless they support fast transition, or if they are reconfigured to function as a bridge, range extender or repeater. Most of Netgear's routers don't support fast transition. AFAIK, the only exception is Orbi, and even there I believe fast transition can be disabled.  So, while there is cause to be concerned about KRACK, the fault generally doesn't lie with your router.

 

As to support, yeah, Netgear's support leaves a little something to be desired, but it's probably par for the course for many companies to be difficult to reach. Live support is expensive and frankly not all that helpful. Answers are usually available on the Internet or here on this forum if you search. It wasn't very hard to find one of Netgear's advisories on KRACK:
https://kb.netgear.com/000049498/Security-Advisory-for-WPA-2-Vulnerabilities-PSV-2017-2826-PSV-2017-...

Message 2 of 4
GeminiJ13
Aspirant

Re: NETGEAR INC. vs. Krack WPA-2 vunerability

The Ether,

Thank you for the informative reply to my post.  It went a long way into helping me understand what Netgear is doing with and for their customers on this important issue.  Honestly, though, you shouldn't have to start a post and then have someone knowledgeable like yourself have to come in and explain what is going on.  This should be front page news on the Netgear website for the foreseeable future.  But, I am very appreciative for the help you gave to me and others.  Have a sunny day!

Message 3 of 4
TheEther
Guru

Re: NETGEAR INC. vs. Krack WPA-2 vunerability

Glad to be of some help. It may not be front page news on Netgear's main website, but it is on front page of the Community page. It's currently in the Stories tab, second row. Yeah, that's not even close to being prominent enough.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/English/ct-p/English
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