Remote firmware update possible?

[psychbiz]

I manage a friends network for him remotely. Have only just heard about the security issues with web access to an attached USB drive on his Asus ac66U with Merlin's firmware installed.

What I want to do is upgrade it to the latest Merlin firmware to fix this vulnerability, but remotely if possible. His network is 3000km away so I can't just drive over and fix it and I think it would be difficult to talk them through the process over the phone.

Is there any way of saving the firmware to the router from a remote site and then searching a location on the router to complete the update?

 

[RMerlin]

I manage a friends network for him remotely. Have only just heard about the security issues with web access to an attached USB drive on his Asus ac66U with Merlin's firmware installed.

What I want to do is upgrade it to the latest Merlin firmware to fix this vulnerability, but remotely if possible. His network is 3000km away so I can't just drive over and fix it and I think it would be difficult to talk them through the process over the phone.

Is there any way of saving the firmware to the router from a remote site and then searching a location on the router to complete the update?

Have you friend connect with you using a screen sharing application such as TeamViewer. Will be far simpler, and less likely to create any issue. You will also want to ensure someone is there to physically power cycle the router in case the reboot got stuck as it sometimes happen following a flash.

 

[psychbiz]

Have you friend connect with you using a screen sharing application such as TeamViewer.

Many Thanks for the quick response and the great firmware.

I will email him now to install Teamviewer.

 

[Adamm]

This can also be done via SSH. The following is what I use for my N56U to autoupdate from my webserver so it should be similar for your router.

/opt/bin/curl -O http://198.23.248.102/N56U/RT-N56U_Latest.trx
mtd_write -r write RT-N56U_Latest.trx Firmware_Stub

 

[psychbiz]

This can also be done via SSH.

I would be prepared to give SSH a go, but although a LinuxMint user on my desktop I've never used SSH before. Could you elaborate a little for a newbie on the SSH commands you described above? particularly the opt/bin/curl -O bit

 

[psychbiz]

Surprise! I just tried logging in to the remote router over HTTPS using Windows 7, went to the firmware upload page and pointed it to the latest Merlin firmware on my network share. After 20 minutes or so a progress bar came up saying it was updating! Let it finish said it needed a manual reboot. Waited a few more minutes and logged in again anyway and status screen showed the firmware had updated to merlin XX.39! So done. I will follow up on the curl command. reading a little bit now and it looks really useful. Thanks to all.

 

[Adamm]

Surprise! I just tried logging in to the remote router over HTTPS using Windows 7, went to the firmware upload page and pointed it to the latest Merlin firmware on my network share. After 20 minutes or so a progress bar came up saying it was updating! Let it finish said it needed a manual reboot. Waited a few more minutes and logged in again anyway and status screen showed the firmware had updated to merlin XX.39! So done. I will follow up on the curl command. reading a little bit now and it looks really useful. Thanks to all.

Those commands are for once you have SSH access to the router to update it via command line, but I don't recommend this for anyone unfamiliar with linux. The method you used above should suit your needs.

 

[RMerlin]

Surprise! I just tried logging in to the remote router over HTTPS using Windows 7, went to the firmware upload page and pointed it to the latest Merlin firmware on my network share. After 20 minutes or so a progress bar came up saying it was updating! Let it finish said it needed a manual reboot. Waited a few more minutes and logged in again anyway and status screen showed the firmware had updated to merlin XX.39! So done. I will follow up on the curl command. reading a little bit now and it looks really useful. Thanks to all.

Keep in mind that while this can work, it remains highly risky. If the upload gets interrupted for any reason, the flash can fail, leaving the user with a router that will require the use of the Firmware Recovery tool from Asus. I certainly wouldn't recommend doing such remote upgrades.