In response to the Linksys advisory:

Sent by: Linksys <fucking@moron.com>
To: hypoclear@jungle.net
cc:
Subject: Linksys router security Advisory

It's people like you that are responsible for everything
costing so much these days.  LinkSys makes a perfectly fine
product.  But you're so anxious to have some kind of news
on your web site so your friends will think you're cool and
you found something really big, that you'll go turn a non-
issue into a major event, forcing the manufacturer to put
unnecessary development into the product, thus increasing
the cost of the product.

I have to assume, based on your security advisory, that you
either a)do not own a Linksys router, or b)do own one, but
are not mentally proficient enough to operate it. The
router only allows login to occur on the private network
(the four pretty little plugs on the front) and you can not
log into the router via the public network (the little plug
in the back that says WAN).  And thus, the only place where
passwords are "submitted in plaintext" is on your local
network when you login to the router.  I suppose if 9-year
old Tommy was running a packet sniffer in his bedroom, it
could be considered a security risk, in that little Tommy
may gain unauthorized access to the router's setup screens,
from which the worst possible thing he could do would be to
make a local computer completely visible on the internet.

Furthermore, the HTML source code you referred to, wherein
the password(s) are plainly visible, is only accessible to
someone who has already entered their password and logged
in on the router.  In other words, the only person who
would ever see those passwords in the HTML source is the
person who has already used those passwords to set up the
router.

I'm not surprised that LinkSys has not responded to your
assanine email attempts.  This has to be the most ignorant
"threat assessment" that I have ever read.  I laugh at your
use of the term "Security Advisory," as I have the feeling
you wouldn't know a security risk if it ran through your
router, up the ethernet cable, and slapped the minerals
out of your mouth.  If you want some material to post on
your web site, why don't you start with the default
configuration of Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and
WindowsNT file system permissions, all of which are set
to the most vulnerable levels by default.  While you're
busy harassing LinkSys about a $90.00 router that doesn't
prevent the four people using it from sniffing each
other's TCP/IP packets, there are a hundred wanna-be
developers writing ActiveX controls in pirated copies of
Visual Basic to infect your computer with a virus, delete
your files, or install the CodeRed worm on your system.

Well, I hope your friends are impressed, because I sure
as hell am not.

--
A. Visitor