Episode 2x08

From Hak5

Synopsis

In this breaking in the new place edition of Hak5 we take a look at some spiffy open-source goodies for your data and network. Paul checks out DD-WRT, a free & open firmware replacement for the oh so hackable Linksys WRT54G. Mubix teaches us why we should all be using TrueCrypt for our sensitive data. Darren gets packets flowing with Smoothwall Express, a firewall distribution of Linux. And Paul demos a sweet burning app for OS X.

Plus all the detilas on this month's LAN party, Poll, Trivia, upcoming events, and plenty of Technolust with Wess, Alli & Nikki.

DDWRT Last Resort Recovery and Extra Instructions

There is a wiki with a plethora of information about DD-WRT and how to hack the WRT-54G and other routers, so if you dont have the hackable WRT-54G your not out of luck and pocket yet: [1]


If for some reason you do screw up the flash, there is information for recovery on the DD-WRT wiki, please check this out first because it shows the 'safer' methods. However, here is a last resort procedure just in case. In my situation, I had bricked the router trying to up the RAM, but didnt realise my model didnt have the extra ram available + at the time didnt have enough cash or patience to get a JTAG cable.
Props to the original information from here: http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/10724_3618616_3

1. Open the router, Wess shows how easy this is in a later episode
2. There is a chip on the router that has marks every five pins, and has 48 pins in total, 24 on each side
3. If pins 15 and 16 are shorted whilst turning on the device, and once the device is on stop shorting the pins. Please note, between each version of router the location of this chip changes, but from the versions I've seen they will always have notches marked every five pins and 48 pins in total (24 each side)
4. You should notice the brick lights disappear and only a power light, + ethernet if you had it plugged in stay on.
5. On your PC you should set your ethernet speed to as half duplex to avoid data problems, and see if you can ping the router, also set a static IP address, chances are your WRT-54G is not doing DHCP anymore
6. Download good, relevant linksys firmware 7. Its time to get TFTP. If you are using vista, you need to add TFTP as an extra program by going into Programs and Features, Windows Components
8. Open up two command prompt windows, in one type ping -t <ipaddress of router>
9. Depending on how bad the router is corrupt, the pings may succeed, if they fail, do step 3 again but keep the ping command open. As soon as you see ping succeed you know the router should be able to accept the firmware upgrade.
10. In the second window type tftp -i <ip address of router> PUT firmwarefile.bin <---- Press enter on this command as soon as you power the router on and pings succeed, otherwise it WONT work
11. You will notice the lights on the router flashing rapidly, this is good it means the firmware is uploading. Leave it alone for at least 30 minutes. It should reboot itself, if you look at the pings, you will notice them fail for a brief period then start to succeed again and continue succeeding, this means the router should have rebooted and you should be able to login to the interface
12. I noticed an inconsistency in the recovery method, main reason being I had bricked my router with DD-WRT already on it. The problem was, I had to use the DD-WRT firmware instead of the Linksys Firmware and it worked fine. So beware of this, I'd say its best to try load whatever firmware version you were allready running if the linksys firmware does not seem to work.