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notfred
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Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Thu Apr 27, 2017 12:23 pm

Being able to remotely DoS attack a cable modem and take it offline with less than 1Mb of traffic isn't good.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/2 ... al_to_dos/
 
SuperSpy
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Thu Apr 27, 2017 2:50 pm

The Puma6 chipset is a disaster.

DSLReports has been tracking a huge latency issue with them for several months now: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31122 ... Discussion

It seems Intel really dropped the ball on these units.
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Redocbew
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Thu Apr 27, 2017 6:40 pm

Bah. I'm replacing this thing with an 6183. I never really noticed the latency issue, but I can get an 6183 from Amazon's warehouse for $50, and then get $15 back if I trade in the 6190 back to Amazon. It'll still be plenty fast enough for any service I might have in the foreseeable future.

Edit: Numbers is gud.
Last edited by Redocbew on Thu Apr 27, 2017 7:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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I.S.T.
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Thu Apr 27, 2017 7:05 pm

I really hope ubee doesn't use these. ._.
 
notfred
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Fri Apr 28, 2017 8:07 am

It was when the DSLReports guys started digging in further to the latency issue that they found that they could DoS it.

I'm glad I'm on my VDSL connection, a lot less fuss than the cable stuff.
 
Kougar
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Wed May 03, 2017 5:15 am

The list of companies using this chipset is crazy large. Found a partial listing:

Arris:

TM1602A TG1642 TG1662A TG1672A TG2472G TG2492 (Virgin Media Hub 3)
TM1602G TG1662G TG1672G
TG1662S

DG1642 DG1660A DG1662G DG1670A DG2460A DG2470A
DG1670A/ACT
DTG1682G
MG2402
SB6190

AVM:

FRITZ!Box 6460 FRITZ!Box 6490

Cisco:

XG1-V3 DPC 3848 DPC 3848V DPC 3939
DPC3941B / DPC3941TÂ (commonly - Comcast Xfinity XB3)

Compal:

CH7465-LG (Arris TG2492LG / Virgin Media Hub 3) CH7466

Hitron:

CDA Series: CDA-32372 CDA-3-35
CDE Series: CDE-32372
CGN3 Series: CGN3, CGN3ACR,CGN3AMF, CGN3AMR, CGN3ACSMR
CGNM Series: CGNM-2250 CGNM-3552
CGNDM Series:
CGNV Series: CGNV4

Linksys:

CM3016 CM3024 CG7500

Netgear:

CG4500 CG4500TM C6300 C6300BD (Telstra Gateway Max - Australia) CM700

Samsung:

Home Media Server

SMC:

D3G2408

Virgin Media's Superhub 3 and Comcast's top-end Xfinity boxes

notfred wrote:
It was when the DSLReports guys started digging in further to the latency issue that they found that they could DoS it.

I'm glad I'm on my VDSL connection, a lot less fuss than the cable stuff.


After having used both, I still prefer cable. SB6183 has been a set-it and forget-it affair.

The issue started when Intel bought the Puma line from TI in 2010 and began using its x86 Atom cores to run it. The more things Intel tries to cram general-purpose Atom x86 into the worse it gets. :lol:
 
Glorious
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Wed May 03, 2017 9:31 am

Kougar wrote:
The issue started when Intel bought the Puma line from TI in 2010 and began using its x86 Atom cores to run it. The more things Intel tries to cram general-purpose Atom x86 into the worse it gets.


There's a rumor that, 3-4 years ago, Intel severely de-emphasized its product validation division in order to be more competitive with the churn of ARM SoCs.

It's not a recent rumor, but recent events have lent it increasing amounts of credence.
 
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Wed May 03, 2017 9:35 am

Anybody have any idea if the Puma 5 chipset is affected at all? (Or possibly just garbage?) I have a Linksys CM3008 modem that uses that chip and it has given me nothing but trouble. Provider says all the issues are on my end, which does seem to be the case (power cycling the modem usually fixes any trouble.)
 
Questar
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Wed May 03, 2017 9:43 am

Nothing new here;

175 million Motorola/Arris cable modems have a DOS vulnerability that was reported in 2008. http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/643049
 
DancinJack
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Wed May 03, 2017 9:57 am

My 6183 just keeps chuggin' along :)
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ludi
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Wed May 03, 2017 1:28 pm

I also got the Surfboard 6183 a few months ago based on TR user recommendations. No complaints, I have yet to reboot anything due to a modem glitch. For a single-function cable modem, skip everything else.
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Kougar
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Sat May 06, 2017 8:15 am

RAGEPRO wrote:
Anybody have any idea if the Puma 5 chipset is affected at all? (Or possibly just garbage?) I have a Linksys CM3008 modem that uses that chip and it has given me nothing but trouble. Provider says all the issues are on my end, which does seem to be the case (power cycling the modem usually fixes any trouble.)


Puma 5 is almost certainly not using x86 Atom cores because it was developed years before Intel bought the Puma platform from TI. So it shouldn't have any of these issues.
 
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Sat May 06, 2017 11:46 am

Glorious wrote:
There's a rumor that, 3-4 years ago, Intel severely de-emphasized its product validation division in order to be more competitive with the churn of ARM SoCs.

From 20 until 10 years ago, Intel was a notable designer and manufacturer of ARMv5 chips, notably their StrongARM and XScale lines for Blackberry, Palm and iPaq. Looks like they shouldn't have bet on Atom as last year they announced they would foundry other people's ARM designs at 10nm for customers like LG.
 
just brew it!
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Sat May 06, 2017 12:12 pm

As a side note, I noticed recently that Microchip (producers of the venerable PIC line of microcontrollers) is also going with ARM for their newer designs. (They had their own proprietary architecture for 8- and 16-bit, used MIPS when they initially went 32-bit, and are now apparently embracing ARM.)

x86 and ARM have effectively taken over; everything else is basically an "also-ran" at this point. POWER, MIPS, and SPARC are all still around, but will likely remain niche platforms. I guess Itanium is still (barely) hanging on too?
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Captain Ned
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Sat May 06, 2017 12:17 pm

just brew it! wrote:
I guess Itanium is still (barely) hanging on too?

Looks like the last Itanium ships in H2 2017.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3169623/ ... looms.html
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
Redocbew
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Sat May 06, 2017 12:19 pm

The chip is now shipping to test customers


It'd be interesting to see the percentage of "test customers" compared to all customers. :P
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The Egg
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Sat May 06, 2017 3:32 pm

Kougar wrote:
The list of companies using this chipset is crazy large. Found a partial listing:

What was your source? I admit to having never thought about cable modem chipsets, but poking around through specs and manuals on a few manufacturer sites yields no useful information.

Been using my SB6120 since 2010, and I never give it a second thought, aside from when the discussion comes up on here. If only all electronics worked so well 8)
 
fullbodydenim
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Sat May 06, 2017 9:06 pm

The Egg wrote:
Kougar wrote:
The list of companies using this chipset is crazy large. Found a partial listing:

What was your source? I admit to having never thought about cable modem chipsets, but poking around through specs and manuals on a few manufacturer sites yields no useful information.

Been using my SB6120 since 2010, and I never give it a second thought, aside from when the discussion comes up on here. If only all electronics worked so well 8)


Yeah I gave my SB6120 to my Dad a while back and I got the SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 for myself. I don't have the highest tier of cable modem speed from my provider so I can upgrade to the SB6183 when the time comes. I guess you only need the SB6190 for gigabit speeds.
 
Starfalcon
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Sat May 06, 2017 10:37 pm

Just got a firmware update on my SB 6190 last night, so looks like they are working on trying to fix some of the issues.
 
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Sun May 07, 2017 7:46 am

Starfalcon wrote:
Just got a firmware update on my SB 6190 last night, so looks like they are working on trying to fix some of the issues.

From what I've read they may be able to fix the latency issues in firmware, but the DoS issues are strictly hardware and thus unfixable.
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Sun May 07, 2017 8:27 am

Intel really seems to be on a tear with the security holes this past week...
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Kougar
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Wed May 10, 2017 7:55 am

Captain Ned wrote:
Starfalcon wrote:
Just got a firmware update on my SB 6190 last night, so looks like they are working on trying to fix some of the issues.

From what I've read they may be able to fix the latency issues in firmware, but the DoS issues are strictly hardware and thus unfixable.


I'm just a layman but I read someplace the latency issue was due to the software stack sitting on top of the general purpose hardware, and so as they couldn't do away with the software layer entirely there would always be some extra latency involved.

just brew it! wrote:
Intel really seems to be on a tear with the security holes this past week...


Depends if they do something about it or not. If not maybe they need more egg on the face.... surprised the AMT vulnerability was undetected for seven years. Or at least supposedly, sounds like something the CIA might've silently, rampantly exploiting
 
strangerguy
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Wed May 10, 2017 11:47 am

just brew it! wrote:
Intel really seems to be on a tear with the security holes this past week...


In the meantime, my $17 obscure EDUP Chinese branded 802.11AC USB adapter with a equally cheapo Realtek chipset is the fastest and most stable wireless NIC that I have ever used.
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Re: Cable modems with Intel Puma6 chipset

Wed May 10, 2017 3:40 pm

Yeah. My cheap TP-Link TC-7610 cable modem is a surprisingly rock solid unit. No connectivity problems whatsoever in its nearly 2 years of 50mbps service.

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