Level 1

70 points

AirPort Base Station - still supported and old firmware 9.9.1 safe to use given last update was 2019 ?

all, quick question, my wifi at home consists of two time capsule (TC) base stations - the wifi works fine with set up as apple extended range mesh and ethernet connection between modem + TC1 + TC2

My only worry is security as noticed the last update was July 2019 - does anyone know if the TC / Airport express is still be3ing supported from security perspective and is safe to use? I know they stopped selling the TC / Airport Express but not sure fi they stopped support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210090

About the security content of AirPort Base Station Firmware Update 7.9.1

This document describes the security content of AirPort Base Station Firmware Update 7.9.1.

About Apple security updates

For our customers' protection, Apple doesn't disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until an investigation has occurred and patches or releases are available. Recent releases are listed on the Apple security updates page.

Apple security documents reference vulnerabilities by CVE-ID when possible.

For more information about security, see the Apple Product Security page.

AirPort Base Station Firmware Update 7.9.1

Released May 30, 2019

AirPort Base Station Firmware

Available for: AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule base stations with 802.11ac

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to leak memory

Description: An out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2019-8581: Lucio Albornoz

AirPort Base Station Firmware

Available for: AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule base stations with 802.11ac

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause a system denial of service

Description: A null pointer dereference was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2019-8588: Vince Cali (@0x56)

AirPort Base Station Firmware

Available for: AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule base stations with 802.11ac

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause a system denial of service

Description: A denial of service issue was addressed with improved validation.

CVE-2018-6918: Maxime Villard

AirPort Base Station Firmware

Available for: AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule base stations with 802.11ac

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause arbitrary code execution

Description: A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management.

CVE-2019-8578: Maxime Villard

AirPort Base Station Firmware

Available for: AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule base stations with 802.11ac

Impact: A base station factory reset may not delete all user information

Description: The issue was addressed with improved data deletion.

CVE-2019-8575: Francesco Ferretti of Magnetic Media Network SpA, joshua stein

Entry updated July 2, 2019

AirPort Base Station Firmware

Available for: AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule base stations with 802.11ac

Impact: An attacker in a privileged position may be able to perform a denial of service attack

Description: A denial of service issue was addressed with improved memory handling.

CVE-2019-7291: Maxime Villard

AirPort Base Station Firmware

Available for: AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule base stations with 802.11ac

Impact: Source-routed IPv4 packets may be unexpectedly accepted

Description: Source-routed IPv4 packets were disabled by default.

CVE-2019-8580: Maxime Villard

AirPort Base Station Firmware

Available for: AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule base stations with 802.11ac

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause arbitrary code execution

Description: A null pointer dereference was addressed with improved input validation.

CVE-2019-8572: Maxime Villard

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Published Date: July 02, 2019

Posted on Jun 13, 2020 6:42 PM

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2 replies

Level 1

70 points

Jul 19, 2020 8:12 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks for response and sorry for delay in responding - I agree with above and will look at an upgrade top newer model - speed wise it may make no difference (as I have a slow 10Mb - 100MB cable connection so current wifi mesh already sufficient) but software and firmware should be more up to date

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Level 10

185,018 points

Jun 13, 2020 7:15 PM in response to MrHk

My only worry is security as noticed the last update was July 2019 - does anyone know if the TC / Airport express is still be3ing supported from security perspective and is safe to use?

Not trying to be cute here, but only Apple knows about any possible plans to offer future security updates for the AirPorts, and they are not telling.

Frankly, the 7.8.1 and 7.9.1 updates were something of a surprise when they appeared because Apple......support wise......had done nothing for the entire year before the updates appeared out of the blue.

The "tower" versions of the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule are shown as currently being supported, whatever that might really mean. Warranty on the products was 1 year and Apple offered nothing in the way of a repair service for products out of warranty. They expected you to buy another AirPort.

Apple typically "supports" a product for 7 years after it is discontinued, so the clock runs out late spring 2025 on these models.

If your AirPort Express is the version with two Ethernet ports, that product was also discontinued in the spring of 2018 so support will expire in the spring of 2025 on this model as well.

Maybe one of the security experts will see your post and be able to offer more information about any new threats that are not currently being addressed by the AirPorts. Depending on which articles you might be reading, new threats appear all the time, but I can't think of a specific one at this time.

One thing that I would keep in mind though.......and that is that the most recent versions of the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule were designed in the 2012 timeframe and introduced in 2013, so they represent technology that was available about 8 years ago. Apple never updated any of the hardware on these models through the years.

So, it's probably fair to say that the AirPorts are "long in the tooth" at this point. If your models are 5+ years old, it might be time to start thinking about your next WiFi routers. I'm retiring my AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule late summer or early fall.

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AirPort Base Station - still supported and old firmware 9.9.1 safe to use given last update was 2019 ?

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