Uploaded December 2019 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
MikroTik routers keep getting owned. They’ve been exploited by advanced threats like VPNFilter, Slingshot APT, and Trickbot. They’ve been compromised by coin miners, botnets, and who knows what else. With each new campaign the security industry publishes new indicators of compromise and everyone moves on.
However, MikroTik administrators operate in a sandbox. They have very limited access to the router’s underlying file system and almost no ability to directly interact with the Linux operating system. Due to these limitations, file hashes cannot answer the fundamental question that is asked again and again on the MikroTik forums, “Have I been compromised?”
It’s time the users had their question answered. In this talk, I’ll present three vulnerabilities that can help MikroTik administrators break out of the sandbox. I’ll show how to use these vulnerabilities to help determine if the router has been compromised.
MikroTik routers keep getting owned. They’ve been exploited by advanced threats like VPNFilter, Slingshot APT, and Trickbot. They’ve been compromised by coin miners, botnets, and who knows what else. With each new campaign the security industry publishes new indicators of compromise and everyone moves on.
However, MikroTik administrators operate in a sandbox. They have very limited access to the router’s underlying file system and almost no ability to directly interact with the Linux operating system. Due to these limitations, file hashes cannot answer the fundamental question that is asked again and again on the MikroTik forums, “Have I been compromised?”
It’s time the users had their question answered. In this talk, I’ll present three vulnerabilities that can help MikroTik administrators break out of the sandbox. I’ll show how to use these vulnerabilities to help determine if the router has been compromised.
