Hidden unknown SSID injected by Airtel in AOT-4221SR modem

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byomkesh

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Jamshedpur
ISP
Home: Airtel / Jio / BSNL
Office: NKN / BSNL ,past used VSNL, GlobeTel, Sify,Reliance,Tulip, RailTel
I found Airtel is injecting an unknown SSID at least in mine and in my neighborhood using a custom firmware in AOT-4221SR modem. I complaint about it to local support but they do not understand it or bother to understand it. Here is the details:
When they install a router they provide you control of a pair of SSID (and guest SSID), you can change the SSID name and password for 2.4 GHz and 5GHz. Beside these two if you want you can create more SSIDs by directly login in to their provided modem. BUT I disabled both the SSID and deleted extra SSIDs (Airtel_Onetouch_*) in modem. But the Hidden SSID from my modem is still visible. It sometimes shows the traffic also.

If any one in the forum has same kind of modem I request you to download Wifi Analyser in mobile or NetSpot in Desktop and check if you modem is also having a Hidden SSID . Irony is that its YOUR modem, your airtel connection BUT Hidden SSID configured by AIRTEL and you have no knowledge or control over it.

The pattern of MACID of hidden SSID is consistent with you 5GHz band MAC ID here is the way it looks like:
if your 5G SSID is 8C:A3:99:0E:8E:0A then Hidden SSID MAC is 8E:A3:99:3E:8E:0A
if your 5G SSID is 8C:A3:99:07:33:AA then Hidden SSID MAC is 8E:A3:99:37:33:AA

i.e. the known broadcasted SSID is added with 02:00:00:30:00:00 to generate MAC for Hidden SSID.

FOR ME THIS IS A SECURITY ISSUE AND UNETHICAL PRACTICE BY AIRTEL. I do not know the SSID or password of the hidden WiFi from my modem it can be digested so easily.

If you have the router PLEASE CHECK and CONFIRM if this practice is followed in other places also or JHARKHAND AIRTEL is the only one doing this.

Will it go to deaf ear of AIRTEL Support ?
 
Airtel Customer reps cannot do anything about it.
I am not sure if you can change that. What you can do is close the wifi on the ONT and hookup another router for Wifi.
 
Dear shashankb,
Closing wifi do not stop the Hidden Wifi. There is no control to switch off the Radio. I already has Dual Band APs which I can use. Therefore as last resort I am thinking to open the hardware and cut the power line of Radio Power Amp OR the antenna.
But if this is a malafide practice by Airtel it must be brought to light and the broadband community must inform to many unsuspecting ordinary user (with limited technical knowledge).
 
@byomkesh i have faced the same issue on JioFiber and Excitel as well. Local representatives and customer care have no idea.
Since they don't provide Admin access for their devices, i couldn't do much about it. Fortunately, i found Admin credentials of Excitel's ONT here and was able to turn it off. But JioFiber continues to broadcast couple of hidden SSIDs. WiFi analyser shows multiple such hidden SSIDs from my neighbours' JioFiber connections as well.

Also, could you please elaborate on your user experience (consistency, pings, uptime, speeds, etc.) of Airtel Fiber in Jharkhand over here [initial impression]New Airtel Xtreme connection in Jharkhand
 
Interestingly Airtel has given many Xstream Fiber connection in my neighborhood with different modem which do not have such hidden SSID, the problem is only with the Sercomm (SERVERCOM) modem (which they call AOT-4221SR). Even after Factory Reset (with fiber disconnected) the problem is there. So its inherent in Firmware which is customized by Airtel.
 
What could be purpose of hidden SSID by these operators?
 

You can ask Airtel guy to change your modem to a Huawei or Nokia one stating some issue. Some routers allow us to close the Radio completely. Again depends on the router.
 
I have requested to replace if they can not resolve it. But Airtel Support in Jharkhand is pathetic.
 
SVK said:
What could be purpose of hidden SSID by these operators?
Click to expand...
Unless I know who exactly has the control of SSID its difficult to tell or assume the purpose.

Only hypothetical assumptions are possible like:

1. Say the guy who installed the modem flushed it with a custom ROM modified by his friend for this backdoor. Then his friend may have a ABC Broadband company can operate as a Wifi Connection provider with WPA-EN authentication over the hidden SSID (which is supported by this modem).

2. OR if it is Airtel itself they can declare my society as a WiFi Hotspot of Airtel and use all broadband customers Hidden SSID to form a Wireless Mesh to provide the service to any mobile user having WiFi subscription (EAP-SIM authentication), may be they will use this Hidden SSID traffic via another VLAN in the ONT.

Many situations are possible BUT having an unknown SSID on MY private Router on MY Airtel Connection with unknown Owner having credentials of it and Unknown purpose is NOT peace of my mind.
 
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Hidden ssid on TP-Link router are common and are used for mesh network and same with this airtel router. Now day ISP airtel and jio router have hidden ssid for mesh network and moreover, they are used to identify problems in the network are they connect with neighbouring airtel router.
 
yep i agree with Trex it looks like a SSID for diagnosing issues. Still as you said, its a security issue as anyone on the SSID have access to ur entire network. They should possibly have it on another VLAN maybe?

You maybe able to find the hashed password of the ssid in the config file?
 
Smartphones/laptops can connect if the SSID and credentials (authentication protocol, certificate, username, password) are known. All these are known to the person (or group of person) who is/are managing it or set these.
 
At last Airtel Technical support changed the modem to Nokia G-2425G-A. This modem do not have a Hidden SSID issue like AOT-4221SR but it looks Airtel has a very bad practice to keep a backdoor connection to your router. The router has a pon VID assigned to IP 192.168.2.2 with a /24 network. Customer does not have access to this configuration or interface. Configuration on the other end of OLT side with this VID is unknown. So why this backdoor created by AIRTEL ???

I am telling backdoor because Airtel (or any of your ISP) already has documented well known (though many non-tech users does not know) TR-069 interface through which they can configure or see all status/statistics of your modem from the NOC.

Undocumented and inaccessible configurations in your modem will always be a problem/concern, but NONE of Indian ISP looks to to fair on this account. The reason is clearly we do not have many technically competent users to understand such issues.
 

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