The Router Is Not a Passive Device - It's the Attack Surface

Internet-exposed routers with default credentials and unpatched firmware were found vulnerable to a high-severity flaw.

CVE-2025-6843 used a hardcoded backdoor to bypass authentication, enabling remote access, command execution, and data exfiltration.

Red team testing reproduced the issue on off-the-shelf devices such as TP-Link Archer C7 v5 and Netgear R6400.

Many affected routers remained unpatched and largely undetected, leaving them open to abuse.

The case shows unmanaged network hardware can become a silent entry point without asset inventory, monitoring, and configuration enforcement.