Hacking The Linksys NSLU2

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article85-page1.php' target='_blank'>http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article85-page1.php</a><br /><br /></div><i>"When I first read the review of the new Linksys Network Storage Unit device (NSLU2) I was definitely interested. It looked to be small, silent, inexpensive and flexible enough to provide backup and file storage to my network. My only concerns were reports that it would only work with Microsoft Windows and that it formatted its disks with a proprietary filesystem ... After I hooked up an external drive, connected to it with my web browser and configured it using the web interface, the NSLU2 was serving files on my home network in no time."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/linksys_nslu2.jpg" /><br /><br />Despite Linksys' documentation to the contrary, using it with MacOS X and Linux appears to be no problem at all. However, the guys over at Tom's Networking wanted to truly customize the box and for that they would need a command prompt. Well, read the article and see how they turned on telnet on this Linsys unit and were able to access a command line.

[JTWise]

While you are reading this story, be sure to check out part 2 of the article:

http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article86.php

Looks very promising. I am anxious to see this product continue to develop.

[Jason Dunn]

So am I the only one who doesn't find it particularly appealing to have to "hack" my products to make them work properly? Yeah, it's got Linux, so what? I just want it to work the right way the first time - I have no desire to have to administer another little computer... :roll:

[Jason Kravitz]

Sounds like they've got some serious security holes to plug! I'd replace telnet with ssh at least :wink:

I guess part of that process involved physical access to the device to pull the passwd file but still - not too good.

[klinux]

Well, I'd like the idea as this is more attractive than just a small computer. It would be quiet and fan-less, no moving parts, less power hungry than a regular PC, less vulnerable to virus and worms, and works well win Windows/Linux/OS X.

All sounds good to me except the need to hack it to expose all the functionality of this gen 1 product.

[Suhit Gupta]

Sounds like they've got some serious security holes to plug! I'd replace telnet with ssh at least :wink:
Good point. In fact I find it odd that people still use telnet in new devices such as these. It should be blanket replaced with ssh if possible.

Suhit