DevOps Articles

What is UPnP? Yes, it's still dangerous in 2021 | UpGuard

Some examples of UPnP devices are printers, gaming consoles, WiFi devices, IP cameras, routers, mobile devices, and Smart TVs. UPnP can also modify router settings to open ports into a firewall to facilitate the connection of devices outside of a network. This service reduces the complexity of networking devices by automatically forwarding router ports to new devices, removing the hassle of manual forwarding.

The graph below indicates the number of devices with UPnP enabled compared to the total number of analyzed devices in each category.

But UPnP is capable of bypassing these security barriers by allowing unauthorized devices to 'poke holes' through firewall policies to established persistent malicious connections.