{
  "id": 15812930,
  "title": "Millions of routers can be hijacked over Wi-Fi thanks to a 16-year-old bug",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/20/millions-of-routers-can-be-hijacked-over-wi-fi-thanks-to-a-16-year",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-20T22:08:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechSpot",
    "slug": "techspot",
    "url": "https://www.techspot.com/news/114276-millions-routers-can-hijacked-over-wi-fi-thanks.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A 16-year-old vulnerability has been discovered that could allow hackers to hijack routers using Wi-Fi, according to a security researcher named Quentin Kaiser. Despite Broadcom issuing a fix for the issue eight years ago, the patch failed to reach many routers in people's homes. The flaw resides in Broadcom's outdated WPS code, which handles message exchanges differently. By sending a specific sequence of messages, an attacker can gain access to the router's memory or execute arbitrary code on the device. No Wi-Fi password or completed WPS pairing is required for this attack; simply being within range is sufficient. The researcher demonstrated the exploit on routers from multiple major ISPs, affecting approximately 1.5 million vulnerable devices in Belgium alone. However, the issue extends globally, with routers built using the same Broadcom chips being sold by numerous ISPs worldwide. Despite Broadcom acknowledging the bug since 2018 and claiming to have since replaced the old WPS code in their software, the patch was found to be incomplete. Moreover, Broadcom declined to request a CVE, arguing that the code is obsolete and outside its support window. This lack of an official identifier has kept the vulnerability hidden from advisories and patch pipelines. While turning off WPS may mitigate some risks, Kaiser warns that it may not fully disable the vulnerable code, and suggests switching off the gateway's Wi-Fi and using it in bridge mode for better security. Kaiser has also shared a detection script on GitHub for users to check their hardware. The researcher has attributed his discovery to the help of AI tools, which enabled him to identify the flaw within a week, a task that would have taken months using traditional methods.",
  "summary": "Security researcher Quentin Kaiser detailed the flaw at the Hexacon conference in Paris on October 16. He calls it WPSplinter, a name he only gave it because Broadcom refused to issue an official identifier. Read Entire Article",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}