Adtran Fiber ISP Hacking

Adtran 411 Security Audit Adtran produces equipment for fiber ISPs. I was provided an Adtran 411 by my current ISP for Internet access and decided to take a deep look into it. Hardware The Adtran 411 is a small GPON fiber ONT (Optical Network Terminal) designed to give symmetrical gigabit fiber Internet to SOHO users. It connects to the ISP via a GPON uplink and provides the user a normal ethernet RJ-45 connector to plug their router into and a RJ-11 port for a landline to be tunneled over VOIP. ...

August 15, 2025 · 8 min

Tethr: Android Tethering Provisioning Check Bypass (CVE-2017-0554)

On most unrooted, stock, Android phones, enabling tethering will run a “Provisioning Check” with your wireless provider to ensure that your data plan allows tethering. This post documents Tethr, a way to bypass the provisioning check on Android devices prior to version 7.1.2. After discovering this method I reported it to the Android bug bounty fixing the issue and receiving CVE-2017-0554. Background The ability to tether is controlled by your device’s build.prop file, usually located at /system/build.prop. The default is to require the provisioning check before enabling tethering, but it can by bypassed by adding the following line: ...

December 27, 2017 · 4 min

Tethr

Tethr is an Android application that demonstrates CVE-2017-0554, a vulnerability that allows bypassing carrier tethering provisioning checks on unrooted devices. The proof-of-concept app exploits system property manipulation to enable mobile hotspot functionality without carrier approval. The vulnerability affects Android versions prior to 7.1.2 by allowing modification of tethering-related system properties through reflection and system service manipulation. This research was conducted to highlight security weaknesses in Android’s tethering permission model.

December 26, 2017 · 1 min

ImageTragick

A collection of proof-of-concept exploits demonstrating critical vulnerabilities in ImageMagick (CVE-2016-3714 through CVE-2016-3717). These vulnerabilities allow remote code execution, server-side request forgery, file deletion, and local file disclosure through maliciously crafted image files. The project provides test scripts and example payloads to help developers and security researchers understand the attack vectors and implement proper mitigations. The vulnerabilities affect web applications using ImageMagick or related libraries for image processing, making this a significant security concern for many web services.

May 3, 2016 · 1 min

Fast and Vulnerable: A Story of Telematic Failures

I gave a presentation at WOOT 2015 demonstrating how network enabled telematic control units (TCUs) can be used to remotely control automobiles from arbitrary distance over SMS or the Internet. Abstract Modern automobiles are complex distributed systems in which virtually all functionality—from acceleration and braking to lighting and HVAC — is mediated by computerized controllers. The interconnected nature of these systems raises obvious security concerns and prior work has demonstrated that a vulnerability in any single component may provide the means to compromise the system as a whole. Thus, the addition of new components, and especially new components with external networking capability, creates risks that must be carefully considered. ...

August 11, 2015 · 2 min