New Script: TurboAsusSec (Beta)--Foray into the world of AI development

[SolCutter]

I am preparing to get my butt handed to me... Joking...

A few months back with the Asus router security breaches, I found a need for more visibility into the routers security. At that time I started to investigate AIProtect and what it may actually offer to us (the user) and used AI in doing so to actually find what the IPS, botnet & CFS system did and how they worked.

I present to you a new Add-on, developed purely with AI. Well, I did use my knowledge to develop this script and move the AI along in doing so--whatever that is... For now I'm using this script for more information and reporting, than later to make system modifications. Together, me with various AIs in the cloud and local, have created a tool to give you insight into the base security components found in most Asus-Merlin routers. I find myself going into my router daily, checking AI Protect, Skynet and Diversion, tweaking them etc. This is so you can get a quick overview of those systems, with more features planned for later.

Feel free to run the code through your QA, of your own or AI based, to assure that I'm not "phoning home". I find that using this mixed AI system of development may be of benefit to developers here in the Merlin forums. I'm looking forward to feedback on this script & I plan to develop it further... Or maybe it's that this script is from the future. Thanks!

To run the script:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CutterSol/TurboAsusSec/main/install.sh -o /tmp/tcds-install.sh && sh /tmp/tcds-install.sh

The GitHub:

GitHub - CutterSol/TurboAsusSec: This is a project attempting to integrate all the security portions of an Asus Merlin router, including Skynet, Diversion & AIProtect

This is a project attempting to integrate all the security portions of an Asus Merlin router, including Skynet, Diversion & AIProtect - CutterSol/TurboAsusSec

github.com

Future plans include modifications to blocking, a webUI, correlation of logs, reporting, and AI analysis. For now, it's just a CLI menu driven script!

Run this script at your own risk! It's been tested on an AX-86U. Please share what model, firmware version, and relevant information with any reply you make here. Heck, I might have an AI agent respond...
Thanks!

 

[SolCutter]

# TurboAsusSec **(Beta)**

**Unified Security Management for ASUS Merlin Routers**

**This project is in BETA** - Active development, features being tested and refined

Integrate and manage **Skynet** (IP firewall), **Diversion** (DNS blocking), and **AIProtect** (threat detection) from a single, lightweight interface.

---

## What Does TurboAsusSec Do?

TurboAsusSec is a **unified security dashboard and management tool** for ASUS routers running Merlin firmware. Instead of managing Skynet, Diversion, and AIProtect separately, you get:

- **Single Interface** - One command (`tcds`) to access everything
- **Merged Views** - See combined whitelists across all security systems
- **Threat Intelligence** - Analyze AIProtect events, CVE signatures, and device security
- **Quick Access** - View logs, check status, run diagnostics instantly
- **Lightweight** - Smart caching minimizes resource usage (~1MB persistent, ~10MB peak)

Think of it as your **security command center** for Merlin routers.

---

 

[SolCutter]

You should go to the GitHub before asking questions. I would upload the entire README.MD, however the forum limits the upload context/characters/lines.

TurboAsusSec/README.md at main · CutterSol/TurboAsusSec

This is a project attempting to integrate all the security portions of an Asus Merlin router, including Skynet, Diversion & AIProtect - CutterSol/TurboAsusSec

github.com

 

[SolCutter]

RES #3

If anyone wants to somehow fund this project for fast development, feel free to PM me..

 

[SolCutter]

Res #4

Blah blah blah blah.

 

[Tech9]

AIProtect

There is no AIProtect component in Asuswrt. There is AiProtection name ASUS uses for the Trend Micro service included in firmware. Other vendors call it HomeShield for example and there is no AI there.

 

[ColinTaylor]

AiProtection. Not AiProtect nor AIProtect.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Kudos to your Senior Developer! He writes some tight code!

 

[visortgw]

There are some issues after installation in running tcds:

# tcds
-sh: tcds: not found
# ls -al /jffs/scripts/tcds
lrwxrwxrwx    1 TheS1R   root            33 Dec  6 08:51 /jffs/scripts/tcds -> /jffs/addons/tcds/scripts/tcds.sh
# sh /jffs/scripts/tcds
/jffs/scripts/tcds: .: line 8: can't open '/jffs/scripts/tcds-core.sh'
# cd /jffs/addons/tcds/scripts/
# sh tcds.sh
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║         TurboAsusSec v1.2.0                         ║
║      Unified Security Management for ASUS Merlin             ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Main Menu:

  1) Overview & Statistics
  2) View Merged Whitelist
  3) Add to Whitelist
  4) View Skynet Recent Blocks
  5) AIProtect & Threat Analysis ►
  6) System Diagnostics
  7) Clear Cache
  8) Update Script
  0) Exit

Enter choice:

 

[Mutzli]

Thank you for the scipt. Installing it was a breeze, but the script only runs if I call it with /bin/sh /jffs/addons/tcds/scripts/tcds.sh. The symlink exists and permissions are fine, but tcds alone gives:

tcds
-sh: tcds: not found

Looks like the shebang or alias isn’t being respected by BusyBox. The installer should ensure the shebang is correct.

 

[dave14305]

Thank you for the scipt. Installing it was a breeze, but the script only runs if I call it with /bin/sh /jffs/addons/tcds/scripts/tcds.sh. The symlink exists and permissions are fine, but tcds alone gives:

tcds
-sh: tcds: not found

Looks like the shebang or alias isn’t being respected by BusyBox. The installer should ensure the shebang is correct.

If you didn’t have a profile.add before installing, the alias isn’t activated until you login again. A minor discrepancy in the installer.

 

[SolCutter]

There is no AIProtect component in Asuswrt. There is AiProtection name ASUS uses for the Trend Micro service included in firmware. Other vendors call it HomeShield for example and there is no AI there.

Tech9, aren't you supposed to be in some other forum. You're the only one that had a preview before I posted, and you didn't say anything then.

I didn't do much to QA the code as almost everything was working. We'll address this issue soon.

AiProtection. Not AiProtect nor AIProtect.

Thanks for your clarification. I'll let the senior developer know...

There are some issues after installation in running tcds:

# tcds
-sh: tcds: not found
# ls -al /jffs/scripts/tcds
lrwxrwxrwx    1 TheS1R   root            33 Dec  6 08:51 /jffs/scripts/tcds -> /jffs/addons/tcds/scripts/tcds.sh
# sh /jffs/scripts/tcds
/jffs/scripts/tcds: .: line 8: can't open '/jffs/scripts/tcds-core.sh'
# cd /jffs/addons/tcds/scripts/
# sh tcds.sh
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║         TurboAsusSec v1.2.0                         ║
║      Unified Security Management for ASUS Merlin             ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Main Menu:

  1) Overview & Statistics
  2) View Merged Whitelist
  3) Add to Whitelist
  4) View Skynet Recent Blocks
  5) AIProtect & Threat Analysis ►
  6) System Diagnostics
  7) Clear Cache
  8) Update Script
  0) Exit

Enter choice:

Thank you for the scipt. Installing it was a breeze, but the script only runs if I call it with /bin/sh /jffs/addons/tcds/scripts/tcds.sh. The symlink exists and permissions are fine, but tcds alone gives:

tcds
-sh: tcds: not found

Looks like the shebang or alias isn’t being respected by BusyBox. The installer should ensure the shebang is correct.

These 2 sound like the same issue, I was having trouble with that during development, thought I had it resolved.

Kudos to your Senior Developer! He writes some tight code!

Thanks Viktor. I thought if you guys who've been writing scripts haven't been using AI, then maybe this project will help in future projects. A lot of it is the prompt and configuration. You can get a free Gemeni API code currently from Google to use their paid for stuff. In fact this entire thing was written with free AI chatbots, barring the local AI I'm using that requires an 8GB or higher GPU, I've got a 16GB. I've learned 5 programming languages in classroom environments, however never really used them professionally. I was asked a few times in job interviews if I knew bash, my quick answer was no... I'd forgotten when I did Android mods I'd make bash calls from DOS...

If you haven't used it, I use AnythingLLM for a lot of stuff, which allows you to configure the AI a little deeper than a lot of systems. They have a desktop app that's easy, and you can do a docker container if you want to access it outside of that single desktop.. Maybe what I can do is get a list of best practices and a project template for developers here, in case someone gets lazy or for the orphan script revival type needs. All this being said, I'm like Microslouch and AI only writes 80% of my code. In other words, if the AI gets stuck, I go into the code and give it a recommendation as to why it's stuck. I'm nowhere near the developer most are on this forum or the ones that have the top scripts, or many of them like yourself. I don't want to get back into that sort of thing...

 

[SolCutter]

Thank you for the scipt. Installing it was a breeze, but the script only runs if I call it with /bin/sh /jffs/addons/tcds/scripts/tcds.sh. The symlink exists and permissions are fine, but tcds alone gives:

tcds
-sh: tcds: not found

Looks like the shebang or alias isn’t being respected by BusyBox. The installer should ensure the shebang is correct.

If you didn’t have a profile.add before installing, the alias isn’t activated until you login again. A minor discrepancy in the installer.

I think these are both the same thing (as was another comment), the trick here is for the time being to log out and log back in after installing.

As for changes, I might consider building a routine in that logs the user out after a new install or at least tells them to. Thanks for the input guys!

Does anyone have any ideas as to what a script like this would be useful for? Any feature request?

The first thing I want to do is get this fully working via scripts. Then I'll work on a web user interface that allows you to at least view security events from the web management interface--a quick overview of the last 24 hours, maybe up to a week. The thought is that you can get a quick overview to know which security script you should check (Diversion, Skynet so on), maybe get some correlation and see some things that you can't see in the GUI. This is why I got into AIProtect in the first place, people had questions as to what it was doing. Heck I thought about adding management in for antivirus clients on both LInux and Windows, where you could have them update and then do full scans with a GUI report as to the results; requires agents.... That would be for ClamAV & Defender only. However I think being able to download a zip file with Diversion, Skynet, AIProtect and possibly DNS logs, where you can upload it into AI for analysis might be as valuable or more valuable given that most Merlin users likely have less than 10 PCs. The logs would look at all devices on the routers network, so not just PCs--my dehumidifier keeps trying to phone home to North Korea....

Any ideas please feel free to post them.

 

[SolCutter]

I haven't reviewed this yet, or really read over it, since it's the weekend. I had the AI create a best practices from lessons learned guide, given the work we did together. Therefore if someone decides to take an existing project into AI or create a new project, then this document might be helpful moving forward in taking on such a project. Essentially it should expedite the time it takes to start making progress. From my experience, sometimes you'll have a lot of ideas that you want to add to a script, however working through adding each portion might be cumbersome at times, so maybe this will help in that case. I may create something similar from a human perspective at a later date.

You can find that information about Merlin AI Assisted Development here:

TurboAsusSec/AIAssistedDevelopment.md at main · CutterSol/TurboAsusSec

This is a project attempting to integrate all the security portions of an Asus Merlin router, including Skynet, Diversion & AIProtect - CutterSol/TurboAsusSec

github.com

 

[Tech9]

You're the only one that had a preview before I posted, and you didn't say anything then.

I believe incorrect terms (like AIProtect) and model numbers (like AX-86U) plus the fact the script is AI generated will limit your potential number of testers. This suggests low level of accuracy from the very beginning and folks around are quite sensitive about their Internet facing devices. I'm not interested in such script, but I wish you luck with this project.

 

[SolCutter]

I believe incorrect terms (like AIProtect) and model numbers (like AX-86U) plus the fact the script is AI generated will limit your potential number of testers. This suggests low level of accuracy from the very beginning and folks around are quite sensitive about their Internet facing devices. I'm not interested in such script, but I wish you luck with this project.

You said the other day you are not even using Asus products anymore. Why do you waste your time commenting in forums?

"This suggests low level of accuracy" --this is obviously based on your own bias and opinions. You're essentially saying that someone who has an understanding, vision and experience can't produce something that's useful through relatively new methods. This is like someone who was a Windows 2 genius saying that adding Internet functionality would be worthless.

Your many arguments are often laughable. I'm going to change my name to MAC10 for all this... Cantankerous you are...

 

[Tech9]

Shifting the focus to personal attacks is a nice addition to this project. Well done.

 

[SolCutter]

Shifting the focus to personal attacks is a nice addition to this project. Well done.

Gaslighting people (as you are) is even better! I'm not here for your perceived popularity competition...

 

[Tech9]

Good luck with this project. I'm leaving this conversation.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Looks like Artificial Intelligence brings out the best in Human Intelligence.
Just my humble $0.02.