A router will continue to function normally after a manufacturer stops issuing firmware updates, as there is no mechanism that disables the device once support ends. However, without updates, any newly discovered security flaws in the router go unpatched indefinitely, leaving it exposed to potential exploitation.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-29
In May 2003, UW-Madison discovered its public NTP time server was being hit by a massive, sustained flood of hundreds of thousands of packets per second from hundreds of thousands of hosts worldwide. Investigation revealed this wasn't a DDoS attack but a design flaw in a popular vendor's cheap consumer routers, which mistakenly hardcoded UW-Madison's server as a time source and queried it far too aggressively.
pages.cs.wisc.edu
· 2026-09-13