According to the Danish-based security consultancy company Lyrebirds, a vulnerability called ‘Cable-Haunt’, known under the code name CVE-2019-19494, affects about 200 million cable modems across Europe. Cyber security company ESET drew attention to the investigation of Lyrebirds, who discovered this vulnerability and shared its findings. “There are an estimated 200 million cable modems in Europe alone,” said Lyrebirds researchers. made the explanation. Some internet service providers have been informed about this issue and firmware updates for the solution. However, there are strong doubts that more and more modems are at risk worldwide. The vulnerability is due to software running the spectrum analyzer tool on chips produced by Broadcom. The spectrum analyzer component, which is responsible for detecting and correcting the cable connection problems of the modem, is used by many cable modem manufacturers in the firmware of their devices. This is due to the high number of modems at risk. It is stated that the Cable Haunt vulnerability can affect almost all cable modems in Europe, and cyber attackers can access and control all data traffic over the modem using this vulnerability. While the spectrum analyzer is visible on the local network, attackers can use the Cable Haunt vulnerability for remote access from anywhere in the world. The research team designed a POC (proof of concept) attack to detect the vulnerability in modems, and successfully tested it on multiple cable modems offered by Sagemcom, Netgear, Arris, Compal and Technicolor.
