On Sat, 25 Dec 2021 at 07:34, Roger Heflin <rogerheflin@gmail.com> wrote:
The vendor must answer that question.  No one else knows what patches were or were not applied to that system 

Assume that bad actors and nation-state intelligence services know quite a bit about such systems,
including admin passwords and keys used for remote management.  Using such knowledge is generally
specifically targeted as too liberal usage might result in loss of attack vectors for future use.  Leaks that
expose such vectors have occurred and can then be used by botnet systems used for DNS attacks, etc. 

It can be interesting to run one of the external port scanning services like https://www.grc.com Shields Up!
These days most home internet services block internet access to incoming ports, but may use some ports
for management.
 

On Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 6:16 AM Jonathan Ryshpan <jonrysh@pacbell.net> wrote:
On a whim I opened up the:
Legal Disclaimer Open Source Licenses
in the management page for my fiber modem (ATT installed 2021/03/30) and discovered that the kernel is rather old:
linux kernel - Version 3.4.11
There are about 163 other open source components, probably most of similar ages.

Is this a security problem?

I outlived a friend whose small engineering business did work for the US Gov't.  He started out with
typical home/small business internet, but as security requirements tighted up he was considering
moving to a cloud provider and VPN.   The effort needed to secure internet access to systems of
potential interest to "nation-state" attackers exceeds the resources of individuals and small business. 
I do have reason to believe that internet providers in areas with concentrations of individuals working
in sensitive industries get extra scrutiny (think about email admins for users with high-level security
clearances), but for most of us I would not trust home internet providers to put that level of effort into
their customer's security.

--
George N. White III