UPnP enabled, but not by me

[#1]

Just now I noticed in my PC's logs that shorewall had been dropping packets from the WAN on incoming ports I had not enabled. On investigation I discovered UPnP was enabled. I always disable UPnP as one of the first configuration steps with any router, so I was shocked to discover it was now enabled. It was only by chance that I'm also running some routing on the PC for the LAN which acted as a second firewall on this occasion.

It's a mystery how this happened and the only thing I can think of is that a router firmware upgrade might have been responsible. It's a Hub 1.

Thought I'd better report it in case others need to check.

[#2]

Are you saying that UPnP became enabled within the Shorewall firewall configuration ?

[#3]

I'm not even sure what that would mean.

UPnP is a router setting. Shorewall is a software firewall on the PC. The PC should not have received the packets in question because no external (WAN) ports are forwarded to this machine. When it did, I checked the router and found UPnP enabled. Since I had not enabled it it seems something must have happened to enable it without my intervention. I believe it is enabled by default, but I had disabled it, hence my wondering whether a firmware upgrade might have reset it to default.

[#4]

@kjpetrie 

The default setting for Plusnet and BT hubs is for UPnP to be enabled. This is unlikely to be changed. Presumably therefore if it fully resets for any reason it will become enabled.

[#5]

Yes, but if I configure the router for my own needs I need it to stay that way. It shouldn't be changed without me knowing about it.

My point is if this is likely to happen people can't rely on their router settings and need to check them regularly. Maybe we should be informed when upgrades occur so we know when to check them to keep our LANs secure.

[#6]

@kjpetrie 

It's a mystery how this happened and the only thing I can think of is that a router firmware upgrade might have been responsible. It's a Hub 1.

If you check the foot of page of the Hub One it states the version and the date the update was applied to the Hub

Unless there has been a recent update it's (from mine)

Plusnet Hub One | Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.289.1.3 | Last updated 30/11/21

HTH