MikroTik RouterOS: file access flaw under attack

What is affected

MikroTik RouterOS is the kind of equipment many homes and small offices run for years without touching: a router, camera or storage box. Attackers scan the internet for exposed units, and a hijacked one can spy on traffic or be enrolled in a botnet without any visible sign.

MikroTik RouterOS through 6.42 allows unauthenticated remote attackers to read arbitrary files and remote authenticated attackers to write arbitrary files due to a directory traversal vulnerability in the WinBox interface.

What an attacker can do

This is a file access flaw. It lets an attacker read or write files they should never reach, such as configuration files that hold passwords, or upload a malicious file that the system then runs.

How it is reached

Over the internet or network

Access the attacker needs

No account needed

Does the victim have to do something?

No, works without the victim doing anything

What to do

1. Check whether you own this device: look at the label on your router, camera or NAS, or open its admin page and note the model and firmware version.
2. Install the latest firmware from the manufacturer's support page or the device's own update menu.
3. If the manufacturer no longer releases updates for the model, replace it. An end-of-life device with an exploited flaw cannot be made safe.
4. Turn off remote administration from the internet unless you truly need it, and change the default admin password.

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on December 1, 2021, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by June 1, 2022, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 96% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 99.9% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 9.1 out of 10 (critical), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.