Posted on May 20, 2023 at 5:43 PM
ASUS Routers Experience Global Outage After A Bad Security Update
ASUS has issued an apology to its customers over a security maintenance error. The error happened on the server side of the device, and it affected router models, causing them to lose network connectivity.
ASUS routers taken offline globally
The issue with these routers has been reported on social media and discussion platforms globally since May 16, 2023. People appeared to be puzzled by the connectivity issues that have been seen across different ASUS routers, while others have complained about the lack of communication from the vendor.
ASUS is a hardware manufacturer based in Taiwan. The company released a statement today on the matter and also issued a security bulletin. It said that the issue was caused by an error within the configuration of a settings file within the server.
The security bulletin published by ASUS on the matter said, “During routine security maintenance, our technical team discovered an error in the configuration of our server settings file, which could potentially cause an interruption in network connectivity on part of the routers,” ASUS said in the bulletin.
The statement released by the company has also not mentioned the kind of error that happened and how it affected remote routers. One of the users on Reddit has also said that the issues with connectivity were triggered by a corrupt definition file for ASD known as ASUS AiProtection.
The Reddit user has also said that updating the firmware had a universal impact on the router. Moreover, the issue was also resolved by resetting the router to the factory default settings, which clears the NVRAM. Any method that is used to remove the offending file will return the router to normalcy.
ASD is an in-built security feature that is issued by TrendMicro. The feature is used in several router models, and it provides real-time protection against any threats that might be emerging.
Updates are installed on this component regardless of whether a user has installed automatic security updates supported by the device or those that have not been supported by the device. The corrupt definition file for the ASD was also automatically deployed across all the affected routers, leading to these routers running out of filesystem space and memory before crashing.
ASUS issues a fix
ASUS has said that its technical team was notified about the server issue, and all the affected routers will return to normalcy. However, in some cases, users will be required to reboot their devices to solve the connectivity issues.
ASUS has also opined that users conduct a factory reset on their devices and re-upload the settings file by following detailed instructions. For the affected users that cannot reset their devices, the vendor has advised that they press and hold the RESET button on the device for a few seconds until the LED power light starts blinking to show that the reset is complete.
ASUS has also urged users that will still encounter a problem after completing the recommended actions to reach out to the company for extra help and guidance.
