Router (gateway): what it is and how it is attacked
Sends information from one network to another, the way a junction sends cars down different roads.
Also known as
- gateway
- layer 3
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
It decides which networks can reach which. A change here can quietly undo a segmentation design.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Default or shared administrator passwords
- Management interfaces reachable from the internet
What reduces it
- Individual named accounts rather than a shared one, and management reachable only from an administrative path
- Accept routing updates only from devices configured to send them
- Patch the device's own software on the same schedule as a server, because it is one
Where it sits
- Group
- Network · The paths traffic travels along.
- Whose side, by default
- Ours · Belongs to the organisation the diagram is about.
- Catalogue identifier
- router
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in network
- The internetWAN · public networkEverything outside your organisation's control.
- Switchlayer 2 · LAN switchConnects the devices inside one building or floor, passing each message only to the machine it is addressed to.
- Remote access gatewayVPN · VPN concentrator · remote accessThe door staff use to reach the internal network from outside.
- Address rangeCIDR · subnet · IP rangeA group of numbered addresses on a network, written as a single line such as 192.0.2.0/24 rather than listed one by one.
- Internet network operatorASN · autonomous system · AS number · BGP network · peeringOne organisation's own network on the internet, identified by a number so every other network knows whose it is.
The network group lists all 6 of them side by side.
Router on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type gateway. The object is placed and connected to whatever was selected, and Tab adds the next one already joined to it. Nothing is uploaded: the page is served with a Content Security Policy that forbids the browser from making any outbound request at all.
Open the diagram maker