BT's Wi-Fi Extender works great – at extending your password to hackers

BT is urging folks to patch the firmware in its Wi-Fi Extender following the discovery of multiple security flaws.

Security researchers at Pen Test Partners discovered vulnerabilities with the consumer-grade kit, including cross-site scripting and the ability to change a password without knowing it.

Pen Test Partners found it was possible to combine these flaws and exploit them to snatch a victim's WPA wireless network passphrase after tricking them into visiting a maliciously constructed webpage while connected to their home network.

“Authentication bypass is not good. Together with the XSS and some poor UI design, this means I can steal your Wi-Fi password,” Pen Test Partners warns.

Fortunately, upgrading the firmware of the Wi-Fi Extender to version 1.1.8 resolves the problem. In a statement to El Reg, BT thanked Pen Test Partners for its help in flagging up the software weaknesses:

We are grateful to Pen Test Partners for alerting us to this issue. We have been working to address this potential weakness and issued an update which corrected the problem in August 2016. We are not aware of any cases where customers have suffered any issues. Customers should ensure they download the firmware update from the BT website.

The bugs – the latest in a long line of vulnerabilities in SOHOpeless networking kit – is explained in a blog post by Pen Test Partners here. ®