The ASUS Security Situation Is Actually Way Worse Than I Thought
A few months ago, I posted a story on ASUS having vulnerabilities in their router products that could lead to you not only getting pwned, but your ASUS router being part of a botnet. Related to that, I offered up some advice as to how to check if you’ve been pwned. But this was the second time this year that ASUS has found itself in a situation where their had serous security vulnerabilities. Because earlier this year ASUS had to fess up to the fact that their AI Cloud feature which allows for remote access to their routers was vulnerable to being pwned.
A couple of days ago, things got way worse for ASUS. YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, who had previously called out ASUS for their shady warranty practices did a video on a number of other vulnerabilities that have been discovered in a variety of ASUS products. If you want to watch the video, here it is:
For those of you who want to skip past watching the video, here’s the TL:DR.
Security researcher Paul “Mr. Bruh” discovered a zero-click remote code execution vulnerability in Asus DriverHub and hardcoded administrator credentials within MyAsus and the RMA portal—exposing user data including names, birthdates, addresses, and phone numbers. As it stands, ASUS claims to have fixed this.
Cisco Talos researcher Marson Icewall Noga also documented two kernel-level exploits in Armory Crate’s ASIO3 driver, enabling physical memory mapping and low-level hardware access. It gets worse because Armory Crate is built into to ASUS motherboards. Which means that even if you nuke Windows and reinstall it, Armory Crate will simply reinstall itself unless you dig into your BIOS and turn off the ability for it to install. For those of you who have Armory Crate installed, removing it is the recommended way to protect yourself. Another reason why you should get rid of Armory Crate is that I noted that when I was testing HYAS Protect At Home, I noted that Armory Crate which was on the ASUS PC that I owned at the time, sent and received a lot of data to and from the Internet for reasons that I couldn’t discern. But given that ASUS seems to have other security problems, that’s another reason why you should strongly consider removing their software ASAP.
And that’s on top of their router issues. And I have to admit, that was one of the motivating factors that made me dump this router from ASUS for this Unifi router. Currently the only ASUS product that I have left on my network is a pair of Zen WiFiXT8’s that I am using in access point mode. I am currently researching how to replace them with Unifi products that have as good or ideally better performance in a mesh setup. But given how bad ASUS security is, I am now making that a today problem Because clearly ASUS is really dropping the ball when it comes to security. And that is on top of their RMA issues and their technical support issues. Which the TL:DR on that is that ASUS tech support is horrifically bad.
The bottom line is that ASUS is really becoming a company to avoid. I don’t know how how else to put it. And honestly the sooner that ASUS products are gone from my network, the better off that I will be be. And if you own ASUS products, you might want to consider getting rid of them as well as you’ll likely be better off as well.
This entry was posted on July 21, 2025 at 8:27 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The ASUS Security Situation Is Actually Way Worse Than I Thought
A few months ago, I posted a story on ASUS having vulnerabilities in their router products that could lead to you not only getting pwned, but your ASUS router being part of a botnet. Related to that, I offered up some advice as to how to check if you’ve been pwned. But this was the second time this year that ASUS has found itself in a situation where their had serous security vulnerabilities. Because earlier this year ASUS had to fess up to the fact that their AI Cloud feature which allows for remote access to their routers was vulnerable to being pwned.
A couple of days ago, things got way worse for ASUS. YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, who had previously called out ASUS for their shady warranty practices did a video on a number of other vulnerabilities that have been discovered in a variety of ASUS products. If you want to watch the video, here it is:
For those of you who want to skip past watching the video, here’s the TL:DR.
Security researcher Paul “Mr. Bruh” discovered a zero-click remote code execution vulnerability in Asus DriverHub and hardcoded administrator credentials within MyAsus and the RMA portal—exposing user data including names, birthdates, addresses, and phone numbers. As it stands, ASUS claims to have fixed this.
Cisco Talos researcher Marson Icewall Noga also documented two kernel-level exploits in Armory Crate’s ASIO3 driver, enabling physical memory mapping and low-level hardware access. It gets worse because Armory Crate is built into to ASUS motherboards. Which means that even if you nuke Windows and reinstall it, Armory Crate will simply reinstall itself unless you dig into your BIOS and turn off the ability for it to install. For those of you who have Armory Crate installed, removing it is the recommended way to protect yourself. Another reason why you should get rid of Armory Crate is that I noted that when I was testing HYAS Protect At Home, I noted that Armory Crate which was on the ASUS PC that I owned at the time, sent and received a lot of data to and from the Internet for reasons that I couldn’t discern. But given that ASUS seems to have other security problems, that’s another reason why you should strongly consider removing their software ASAP.
And that’s on top of their router issues. And I have to admit, that was one of the motivating factors that made me dump this router from ASUS for this Unifi router. Currently the only ASUS product that I have left on my network is a pair of Zen WiFiXT8’s that I am using in access point mode. I am currently researching how to replace them with Unifi products that have as good or ideally better performance in a mesh setup. But given how bad ASUS security is, I am now making that a today problem Because clearly ASUS is really dropping the ball when it comes to security. And that is on top of their RMA issues and their technical support issues. Which the TL:DR on that is that ASUS tech support is horrifically bad.
The bottom line is that ASUS is really becoming a company to avoid. I don’t know how how else to put it. And honestly the sooner that ASUS products are gone from my network, the better off that I will be be. And if you own ASUS products, you might want to consider getting rid of them as well as you’ll likely be better off as well.
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This entry was posted on July 21, 2025 at 8:27 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.