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CriticalCISA KEVExploited in the wildPublic exploit

Dasan GPON Router Authentication Bypass via ?images

IdentifiersCVE-2018-10561CWE-287· Improper Authentication

CVE-2018-10561 is an authentication bypass vulnerability in Dasan GPON home routers. The issue allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to access endpoints that normally require authentication by appending the string "?images" to the requested URI, as demonstrated with paths such as /menu.html?images/ and /GponForm/diag_FORM?images/. By abusing this improper authentication handling, an attacker can reach privileged management functionality without valid credentials. Reporting and observed exploitation commonly pair this flaw with CVE-2018-10562, using CVE-2018-10561 to bypass login protections and then access administrative or diagnostic interfaces that can be leveraged for further compromise.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

The primary impact is unauthorized administrative access to the router’s management interface. An attacker can bypass authentication and manage the device without credentials. In real-world campaigns, this flaw has frequently been used as the first stage in compromise chains against GPON routers and, when combined with CVE-2018-10562, can lead to full device takeover including root-level remote code execution. Even on its own, the vulnerability exposes sensitive management functions and undermines all access control protecting the device.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If patching is not immediately possible, disable remote administration from the public Internet, restrict management access to trusted internal networks only, and enforce filtering at upstream firewalls or ACLs to block external access to the router’s web management interface. Limit exposure of HTTP/HTTPS administrative endpoints, segment affected devices from untrusted networks, and monitor for requests containing the "?images" suffix to management paths such as /menu.html and /GponForm/diag_FORM. Given widespread botnet exploitation, internet-exposed affected devices should be treated as high risk until removed from exposure.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply the vendor-provided firmware update or official fix from DASAN Zhone Solutions if available for the affected GPON model. If no supported patch is available, replace unsupported/end-of-life devices with maintained hardware. Because this vulnerability has been widely exploited by botnets, remediation should also include reviewing device integrity after patching or replacement, resetting compromised devices to a known-good state, rotating administrative credentials, and auditing configuration changes.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No valid public exploits. Mallory filtered out 1 candidate as fakes, detection scripts, or README-only repos.

VALID 0 / 1 TOTALView more in app

All candidate exploits were filtered out by Mallory's validation.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
DasannetworksGpon Router Firmwareoperating_system

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence1

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware12

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures1

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity3

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.