Hi-Spider Router Censorship Research

Hi-Spider advertising number of URLs blocked:

I was able to get remote access on this device by uploading a perl script using the router's built-in network-attached storage feature. I wrote the perl script to immediately initiate a reverse shell upon execution. Since the router's web server was configured to execute any file ending in *.pl as a perl script, I was able to get a shell on the router by “downloading” the perl script that I had uploaded.

After a while, the Hi-Spider router would eventually detect that it had been hacked, requiring me to occassionally repeat the process:

Most notably, I found that the router software grossly exaggerated its censorship capabilities (see below).

Lists

From 2009:

• *.conf file advertising 70,601 blocked URLs, which is what is advertised in the Web UI
• URL blacklist containing only 601 blocked URLs (the router programmatically exaggerates the total count by 70,000 or by over 11,647%)
• Singleton keyword blacklist

From 2011:

• *.conf file advertising 71,225 blocked URLs, which is what is advertised in the Web UI
• URL blacklist containing only 1,225 blocked URLs (the router programmatically exaggerates the total count by 70,000 or by over 5,714%)
• (No keyword blacklist)