Old Router Firmware: How Bad Is It?

[flyoffacliff]

I will soon take an old router out of service, which has been running the latest avalible firmware for many years. It has a build date in 2008. This is not suprising, as most consumer-grade routers don't recive firmware support for more than a couple years, if ever. But how much of a security risk do these devices pose to their networks.
I mean Microsoft Windows releses a security update every month, and unlike the routers, they are not the first devices exposed to the internet.

 

[System Error Message]

depends on how visible the router is. Run a scan to see what shows up. Other than the firewall protecting WAN, it does not make them immune to crashes and vulnerabilities caused by some things but as long as whoever is on the net cant identify your router and see any open ports than you're fine. Shodan actually can help here but you would need to have the same ip address for a while in order for shodan to have updated info on your network. Use scans using both shodan and other tools as well and there are sites that specifically test routers too.