QNAP firmware update leaves NAS owners locked out of their boxes

Downgrading or customer support are your options if you caught the bad one.

A recent firmware pushed to QNAP network attached storage (NAS) devices left a number of owners unable to access their storage systems. The company has pulled back the firmware and issued a fixed version, but the company's response has left some users feeling less confident in the boxes into which they put all their digital stuff.

As seen on a QNAP community thread, and as announced by QNAP itself, the QNAP operating system, QTS, received update 5.2.2.2950, build 20241114, at some point around November 19. After QNAP "received feedbacks from some users reporting issues with device functionality after installation," the firm says it withdrew it, "conducted a comprehensive investigation," and re-released a fixed version "within 24 hours."

The community thread sees many more users of different systems having problems than the shortlist ("limited models of TS-x53D series and TS-x51 series") released by QNAP. Issues reported included owners being rejected as an authorized user, devices reporting issues with booting, and claims of Python not being installed to run some apps and services.

QNAP says affected users can either downgrade their devices (presumably to then upgrade once more to the fixed update) or contact support for help. Response from QNAP support, as told by users on forums and social media, has not measured up to the nature of losing access to an entire backup system.

Ars has reached out to QNAP for comment and will update this post with response.

QNAP's firmware push was intended, in part, to cover recent security vulnerabilities in their devices. QNAP devices are a rich and frequent target of criminal hackers. A severe vulnerability from February 2023 allowed for remote SQL injections and potential administrative control of a device, affecting nearly 30,000 devices seen in network scans. It was a follow-on from attacks by DeadBolt, a ransomware gang that infected thousands of QNAP devices and cornered QNAP into automatically pushing emergency updates, even to customers with automatic updates turned off.

Security researchers at WatchTowr said they found 15 vulnerabilities in QNAP's operating systems and cloud services and informed the company of them. After QNAP failed to patch some of those vulnerabilities far beyond the typical 90-day window (and then some), WatchTowr went public with its findings, dubbed "QNAPping at the Wheel."

QNAP devices, like any network-attached storage, should ideally only be connected to the Internet through a VPN or other security measures.

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