Video: Seagate wireless drives at risk from dumb password backdoor

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
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Seagate wireless drives have a serious security hole – an undocumented backdoor which allows malicious hackers to access files, just by using the username “root” with the password of “root”.

Quack quack oops…

You can watch the video below, or subscribe to my YouTube channel if you like.

Seagate wireless drives at risk from password backdoor | Graham Cluley

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It’s depressing that we spend so much of our time telling regular computer users that they should use hard-to-crack, hard-to-guess, unique passwords for every website that they use online, but manufacturers like Seagate sell products which all have the same dumb password.

Learn more in the security advisory published by CERT.


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "The AI Fix" and "Smashing Security" podcasts. Follow him on Bluesky and Mastodon, or drop him an email.

2 comments on “Video: Seagate wireless drives at risk from dumb password backdoor”

  1. Pete

    Wombats? HAR! I'm still chuckling at that one.

    But I'm less mirthful about the decline in quality (and common sense, apparently) at Seagate. They once had the best hard drive warranty in the business, with quality and reliability to match it. But using some bizarre pretzel logic in which they assume customers prefer crap, they seem to have chosen the chintzy path. As a result, I haven't bought a Seagate drive in years.

    Now comes this revelation about this idiotic back door. What are they using for sense? I hope this video goes viral, and someone at Seagate realizes that they'd better restore their lost commitment to quality. Otherwise, they'll never get my business back, and a lot more customers will be jumping ship into the bargain.

    Thanks as always for your great reporting Graham!

  2. David L

    This lack of concern for basic security by manufacturing of hardware/software is a
    World Wide Pandemic!

    As to what Pete said above, the problem is there is not enough of an embarassment factor because these stories rarely make it to the big media. And even when they do, it is only a blip, and the general public is worse than clueless!

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