RT-AC86U w Merlin Corrupted wrote CFG to desktop

[tommyz1052]

I was running Merlin 386.19, this am spontaneously having wifi issues. When i went to login through web gui my username and password didnt work. I made several attempts at resetting via reset with difficulty. Finally i was able to facory default ( which didnt revert 100% to Factory settings)
Over-wrote a Asus Vanilla firmware which helped and I was able to get things up and running.
When i searched for a CFG file i found a Asus CFG file dated Today 4/28/2021 with the approx time minus about 10 minutes before my troubles began. The file was located on the desktop of the computer I was working under. In a folder that had the last software installed in (windows defaults to it). Named ASUS2Settings_RT-AC86U (2).CFG.

Someone / thing inserted a 2 in between Asus and Settings , I dont think its algorithmic as in the auto rename function. Biggest annoyance was non functioning username/password . I gave up and used a 4 month old file.

What I am asking, is it possible there is a backdoor and people are screwing around with my setup?

I upped my firmware to 318.22

Any thoughts?

 

[kernol]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I'm a bit confused ... as far as I know there is no 386.19 firmware - there was 384.19 ... which in the case of the RT-AC86U included a special note in the Changelog to that version requiring a JFFS partition backup - format and restore after upgrading from any prior version [Merlin or Stock].

Also- no 318.22 firmware - but I assume you meant 386.2.2 ???

Anyway - bottom line is you seem to have some data corruption in the router and coming from 384 code to 386 code on the RT-AC86U your router will definitely benefit from following this series of guides ...

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/major-issues-w-rt-ac86u.56342/post-495710

EDIT: as to the (2) inserted in your config file name - that happens automajically whenever Windows encounters a file of the same name in the folder where the file is to be saved ... in your case probably a (1).CFG is lurking there as well?.

 

[tommyz1052]

yes your corrections are correct. Sorry i typed this quickly. Didnt see the info on jfss backup. I thought it bizarre it dumped that cfg. Ist that a feature? Just copying it anywhere.... I tried that cfg and password doesnt work of course.

So i updated to the 386.2.2 , but my Aimesh nodes are not at that version. Initially it seemed that i could see them and they were accepting firmware, now they are just hanging out. The splash screen shows Unable to connect to the parent AP Rt-ac68u ( i have 3 ac68u's)......