Buffalo QA fail results in NTT Hikari Portable malware infestation

A massive quality assurance fail by Buffalo Inc resulted in a number of NTT's Hikari Portable 3G routers being shipped preinstalled with an unwanted feature, malware. Potentially infected products include the NTT-branded PWR-100D and PWR-100F, as well as the Buffalo-branded DWR-PG. If you own one of these products, you can check to see if your router is infected at either NTT's or Buffalo's sites by submitting your serial number.

Only unprotected versions of MS Windows, from 98 to 7, are at risk. Thus far, all detected malware are known to security product vendors, so a computer running security software with an up to date definitions file should not have been infected. Also, malware installation would only have occurred if the PC was directly connected to the router by USB.

How did this happen? I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

During the QA checks, a sample of finished products were pulled and checked for defects. Unfortunately, one of the machines used for these quality checks was infested with all sorts of bad stuff. This table from IT Media lists what has been found so far as reported by various security packages. NTT also has a list (PDF) of detected malware.

Names of malware reported by major security software

Software name	Malware name	Detected File
ウイルスセキュリティZERO （ソースネクスト）	－	Autorun.inf
	EmailWorm	Explorer.exe
	Trojan	images.exe
ウイルスバスター （トレンドマイクロ）	Mal_Otorun1	Autorun.inf
	WORM_VB.DVP	Explorer.exe
	WORM_AUTORUN.EIK	images.exe
Norton Antivirus (symantec)	－	Autorun.inf
	Infostealer.Lineage	Explorer.exe
	Trojan Horse	images.exe
F-Secure (F-Secure)	Trojan.Autorun.AEX	Autorun.inf
	Trojan.Agent.VB.H	Explorer.exe
	Gen Pack:BAckdoor.Generic.202141	images.exe
McAfee (McAfee)	W32/Conficker.worm!inf	Autorun.inf
	Generic PWS.g	Explorer.exe
	W32/Autorun.worm.dq.gen	images.exe