D-Link has released firmware updates for the company’s DGS-1510 stackable managed switches to address serious vulnerabilities that can be exploited remotely to hijack the devices.

Security researchers Aditya K Sood and Varang Amin discovered that the D-Link DGS-1510 switches, which are recommended for small and medium-sized enterprises, have an insecure authentication design.

According to the experts, a remote attacker can exploit the authentication bypass vulnerabilities to execute commands on the switch, and extract configuration and other data.

A proof-of-concept (PoC) shared by the researchers with SecurityWeek shows how an unauthenticated attacker can harvest user information from a device, including username and password, and add a new user with administrator privileges. The PoC will be made publicly available at a later date.

Sood and Amin said they identified dozens of systems on the Internet, but they did not attempt to determine exactly how many devices can be exploited remotely from the Web.

In its own advisory, D-Link described the vulnerabilities as unauthenticated command bypass and unauthenticated information disclosure issues. The flaws affect DGS-1510-28XMP, DGS-1510-28X, DGS-1510-52X, DGS-1510-52, DGS-1510-28P, DGS-1510-28 and DGS-1510-20 models running any firmware version prior to 1.31.B003.

The firmware update that addresses the security holes is currently in beta and it will be made generally available once it passes long-term quality assurance testing, D-Link said.

The problems were reported to D-Link in January and the patch, tested by the researchers, was released on February 21.

Serious vulnerabilities were found in many D-Link products last year, including cameras, access points, modems, routers, storage solutions and connected home products.

In early January, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against the Taiwan-based networking equipment provider, accusing the company of making deceptive claims about the security of its products. D-Link is determined to fight the “unwarranted and baseless” charges.

Related: D-Link Patches Critical Flaw in DIR Routers

Related: Netgear Starts Patching Critical Router Flaw

Related: Netgear Launches Bug Bounty Program

Eduard Kovacs is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

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