Transformation of the Intercross ICxETH5670NE router into Asus RT-N12XL
I wanted to flash some alternative firmware onto it. I immediately found a topic on the 4PDA forum about this model, but there were no firmware versions except the earliest ones. The router is working, but the manufacturer did not really care about its support, releasing new firmware versions and closing vulnerabilities. According to messages on the same forum, neighbors of the owners of this device easily hack it through a vulnerability in WPSA You can't disable WPS because there is no such setting.
Firmware
It was decided to find out what kind of platform is inside, and then find an analogue and try to flash it with the firmware from it. Carefully peel off the rubber feet and unscrew the bolts under them. There are also some latches on the sides, be careful. Having disassembled the router, we see the board AP699E9N.9U31H-4 REV:1.0
The board number immediately found two routers Asus RT‑N12LX and Asus RT‑N12E. And it seems that they are almost identical and differ only in that the RT‑N12E has removable antennas, while the RT‑N12XL does not, just like this ICxETH5670NE.
The latest firmware version for Asus RT‑N12LX is 2.0.0.39 from 2017. But it's in .trx, and our router only accepts firmware in .img format via the web interface. To restore firmware on Asus RT-N12 series routers (and not only), you can use the ASUS Firmware Restoration utility, but you need to put the router into recovery mode, and I couldn't do this on the Intercross router.
Since the router is already disassembled, the chip with the firmware is located so that it is easy to connect to it with a clothespin and there is a CH341A programmer at hand, it was decided to flash it directly. The only thing left is to find a fullflash dump from Asus RT‑N12LX. And I did not find it in the public domain at that time, but I found it dump from Asus RT‑N12Ewhich seems to be the same. We put the clamp exactly so that all the contacts are in their places. We connect the programmer. Despite the fact that the router's power is off, power is supplied to the chip from the USB through the clamp and this is visible by the glowing LED.
We will powder with the AsProgrammer program, in which we need to select our CH341A programmer and the microcircuit that we will flash, in this case it is WINBOND W25Q32FV.
Let's try to read. If everything is correct, then the current firmware of our router is considered, which is better to save, for example, as backup.bin.
After that, erase the contents of the flash using the button with a red cross. Then check for cleanliness. After that, load RT‑N12E_2.0.0.39.bin (you can load it directly from the LX version, but I didn’t have such firmware at that time). Flash it. And check the contents.
We turn off the programmer and turn on the router. We go to http://192.168.1.1 with the login and password admin and see that our router has turned into Asus RT‑N12E.
It would probably be possible to use it this way, but what if now via the web interface it is possible to flash the firmware from RT‑N12XL in .trx format? We try to flash RT‑N12LX_2.0.0.39.trx and yes, it started flashing smoothly.
After rebooting we now have Asus RT‑N12LX.
Removed with a programmer dump already as RT‑N12LXnow you can flash it right away, without subsequent reflashing via the web interface. Although via the web interface it is possible to flash without problems, both from E to LX, and from LX to E version. The settings are even saved, although it is better to reset them.
Now it is possible to disable WPS, and in general, more vulnerabilities seem to be closed. It would seem that you can rejoice, but the router does not connect to the Internet.
Setting date and time
At first I didn’t even understand what was going on, I went through the settings, reset them to default, until I saw in the log that the router was now in 2017.
You need to set the correct time, but how to do it? The thing is that all that is available for setting the time is the NTP server and the time zone.
There is simply nowhere to set the time manually. There are quite a few questions on the Internet about how to set the time on this and similar Asus routers, but all the answers and instructions boil down to the fact that you set the time zone and NTP server, connect to the Internet and the time will be synchronized. i.e. the router does not connect to the Internet because the time is incorrect, and to set it you need to connect to the Internet.
I tried connecting this router via LAN port to another one, which has Internet, including in AP mode, thinking maybe it synchronizes this way. I changed NTP servers in this form to others. But in vain.
The next logical option is to connect via telnet or SSH and set the time with a command, but after knocking on the router on ports 22 and 23, I did not receive a response. There is no telnet enable anywhere in the web interface, but it turns out that you can enable it by entering the following in the address bar:
http://192.168.1.1/telnetd.cgi?enable=1After which you can connect and set the time using a command like this:
date -s "091713582024"where 09 is the month, 17 is the day, 1358 is the time, 2024 is the year.
Reboot the router. An icon finally appears on the network map indicating that we are connected to the Internet, but for some reason the router does not distribute the Internet. Reset the settings to default values, do not worry about the time, it will not reset. After that, the quick setup menu appears, which is better to go through to the end, even though the settings offered are not optimal, then you can configure the same Wi-Fi to WPA2 and AES instead of WPA with TKIP, disable WPS, etc. That's all. Now everything should work.
Instead of a conclusion
The note was written simply because “it was evening and there was nothing to do”, and the old hardware was at hand and I wanted to do something with it. As a result, the owners of this router got a slightly fresher and slightly safer alternative to the stock firmware. Of course, I would like something like LEDE/OpenWrt, but unfortunately the Realtek RTL8196C chip not supported. Also, owners of similar Asus routers with lost clocks now know what to do. It is clear that the router is old, budget and in modern conditions is nothing special, but it can be used as a temporary backup option.
