Hundreds of thousands of routers have a 16-year-old flaw that no one plans to repair

Though the vulnerability has been round for 16 years with proof that it was being actively exploited within the wild, there’s nonetheless no repair. Broadcom did launch an replace in 2018—eight years after the vulnerability was first reported!—that partially patched the flaw, however they then shifted the duty onto producers, who have been anticipated to adapt their very own software program to resolve the difficulty. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t occur.

In July 2026, Kaiser reported the vulnerability to Broadcom as soon as once more. Nevertheless, the corporate referred again to the patch it had already supplied, though it clearly didn’t absolutely resolve the issue. Machine producers have been additionally unable to offer an answer when requested. It looks as if neither Broadcom nor the producers will take motion.

In response to Kaiser, it’s not sufficient to easily disable WPS on affected fashions—the vulnerability can nonetheless be exploited, with attackers in a position to achieve entry, which makes the state of affairs much more troublesome.

There isn’t a full record of affected fashions, which makes it even more durable for affected customers who need to implement a workaround. In the event you’re affected, all you’ll be able to actually do is strive contacting help and requesting data, specifying your router mannequin and yr of manufacture.

Additional studying: Important tweaks to safe your property community router