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La Fonera: Autoupdate to 0.7.1.5

"There is something suspicious" 

This is, what I read in the logs, when I recently checked the logs of my fonera. It told me, that there was some answer from the "fon-home-script", thinclient.sh.  

Closer investigations gave the reason for this: fon updated the la-fonera software another time. This time, the hotfix and the changes are both small. The Changelog gave me the first hints what to look for:

Bugs:

[DNS change] DNS queries are properly managed now when the WAN IP address of La Fonera changes.

As I won't upgrade unseen changes, I analyzed the changes, as "DNS-update" sounds a like that could include a fix for that chilli "exploit", using dns as a helper.

 (More)

La Fonera's IPKG Bug

An Article in the category: Do Not Brick Your Fonera Router. If you break it, you'll have to keep the pieces.

The ipkg binary in the fonera is broken. It is not really the ipkg binary, which is broken. So it can happen, that  -- especially a ipkg remove -- can delete some essential directories. /lib/ for example, effectivly break the router.

But there is an script available, which replaces ipkg to get it safe. Just execute the following (on Fonera)

wget  http://blog.coldtobi.de/gallery/1/ipkg.txt -O /usr/bin/ipgk; chmod 0750 /usr/bin/ipkg   

[Update:] Safer is:

FON: Online Statistics

If someone is wondering, how many foneras are active or inactive, here's a image for Europe:

FON Movimiento 2

Just read in a comment in the blog of FON's founder: (http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/general/15-minute-free-surfing.html) 

Posted by Martin Varsavsky - June 25, 2007 10:49 pm - #

Fon is working on tunneling technology to tunnel the traffic of each alien. We r doing this because it is a requirement of the UK when u pass 10k hotspots.

I hope, that this is not only because "UK requires it", but also because the security concerns.

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The Fonera "Wifi Ads Protest" Lake

Day after day, the protest against the security problems actions of fon get stronger. Now, it seems that some people are showing their protest against the promotion, the fon community is on strike.
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FON and 15 minutes of security

At the moment, Fon advertises that by watching an ad video, a guest can surf 15 minutes. (See here: english, german). Reading the FAQs reveals some interesting  infos: 

How many times can users see a WiFi ad and get a free trial?
Answer
All users will only be able to get a free trial once a day per user and device.  [Quote from Fon's FAQs]

well, nice promotional idea, but not really compatible with their own securiy policy:

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How to disable La Fonera

Due the recent security problems, here's a short how-to disable the public FON Access Point without interferring with the private network.

Note: A this is probably considered as breach of the agreement you made with FON, this is on your own risk. You probably want to suspend roaming as well while your fonera is crippled.

Just unplugging the antenna is not a good solution, as it might destroy some electronics in the La Fonera.  

Disclaimer: DO NOT BRICK YOUR FONERA. BY MODIFING THE FONERA THORUGH SSH, IT IS POSSIBLE TO BRICK IT, ESPECIALLY IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. ALSO THIS HOWTO CAN CONTAIN ERRORS. IF IT BREAKS IT, IT IS YOUR PROBLEM, NOT MINE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! (However, a factory reset should always be possible, at least you did not screw it up completly.) 

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