"Let’s focus on the Cisco Router bug, a.k.a. Thrangrycat a.k.a. 😾😾😾 . (Yep, the bug’s name is three angry cat emojis.)"

Charlie Warzel and Sarah Jeong:

Cisco makes a ton of the hardware that connects the world. If you access the internet, chances are that you pass through a Cisco router in some way, shape or form. And most of those devices, 150 or so different varieties of routers, have been compromised. And it’s not just something that a software update or patch can fix in a jiffy. This is structural.

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Thrangrycat is very, very, very bad. I’d rate it as Less Bad than the Intel disaster (which is very catchily named ZombieLoad) and More Bad than the WhatsApp hack.

Thrangrycat is awful for two reasons. First, if a hacker exploits this weakness, they can do whatever they want to your routers. Second, the attack can happen remotely — it’s a software vulnerability. But the fix can only be applied at the hardware level. Like, physical router by physical router. In person.