Full memory in router??

[JMcM]

Wow, all these recent issues for the same thing. Mine started yesterday (May 17) with the ASUS RT-AC68U losing internet connectivity.

Lots of these in System Log > General Logs

dnsmasq-dhcp[643]: failed to write /var/lib/misc/dnsmasq.leases: No space left on device (retry in 60s)

 

I upgraded to 3.0.0.4.386_51665-g8072e52 and it seems to be stable now

[vectornull]

Add me to the list RT-AC88U. EXACT same issue.

For anyone else with this model, the firmware page is https://www.asus.com/networking-iot-servers/wifi-routers/asus-wifi-routers/rt-ac88u/helpdesk_bios/?model2Name=RT-AC88U.

As of 5:13 pm pst 20230518, the most current firmware version is

ASUS RT-AC88U Firmware version 3.0.0.4.386.48260

Version 3.0.0.4.386.48260

41.45 MB

2022/03/25

[shaddai]

There seems to not be a new firmware for the ZenWifi Mini (XD4), and the firmware update check is currently broken for me. Boo.

[EBM]

Thanks to Lebowski_DG. Had all the same symptoms on RT-AC86U everyone else mentioned. Worked fine, then suddenly it locked up due to memory issues. Rebooting would only help for a few minutes. Had to do the factory reset twice because the first time I couldn't find a computer with an ethernet port, but then did it and updated the firmware, re-loaded SSID and password and, so far, it's been fine since (~10 hours so far). I was literally walking out the door to go replace it but then thought I should see if it could be reset, rather then just rebooted. So, thanks again Lebowski_DG, you saved me a bunch of money today.

[mhz_maniac]

I have an ASUS DSL-AC68U (firmware version 3.0.0.4.386_50117) and ran into the same issue yesterday (18 May). The router was absolutely rock solid before with no issues whatsoever. I initially tried to perform a reset via the GUI (Administration -> Restore/Save/Upload Setting -> Factory default) with the "initialize all the settings" option ticked but that didn't work. The router would be fine for about 20min after startup before the same error started to appear with my Internet connection failing soon after.

 

Following the steps Lebowski_DG provided (which is essentially a "Hard Factory Reset") solved the issue as that actually cleared up some space. I did have an ISP DHCP error reported briefly after the reset but that went away by itself after a restart or two.

 

After about a day's solid use, this is what the free space situation looks like now:

Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs                   39.1M     39.1M         0 100% /
/dev/root                39.1M     39.1M         0 100% /
devtmpfs                124.8M         0    124.8M   0% /dev
tmpfs                   124.9M      2.4M    122.5M   2% /tmp
/dev/mtdblock4           62.8M      2.7M     60.0M   4% /jffs

 

Kudos to Lebowski_DG for sharing the steps to fix this!

[Gnuget]

I have this problem too I have an ASUS RT-AC3200 and mine started on May 17 with the problem.
 

dnsmasq-dhcp[268]: failed to write /var/lib/misc/dnsmasq.leases: No space left on device (retry in 60s)

[shaddai]

Today's adventure is the check_watchdog for rc_service keeps doing this every 30-60 seconds:

 

May 19 09:35:00 ZenWiFi_XD4-81E0-4E08CE2-R check_watchdog: [check_watchdog] restart watchdog for no heartbeat
May 19 09:35:00 ZenWiFi_XD4-81E0-4E08CE2-R rc_service: check_watchdog 1915:notify_rc restart_watchdog

Fuuuuuuuuun.

[Zewtastic]

This event made it into https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/asus-fixes-error-that-caused-mass-router-outage-worldwide-for-2-days/

But I am still mystified.

 

No updates are coming to my router from ASUS secretly (to my knowledge), and my firmware had not been updated for maybe 6 months+.

 

This bug was sitting silently for how long and set to trigger at the end of May 16 2023?

 

Quote

“On the 16th, Asus pushed a corrupted definition file for ASD, a built-in security daemon present in a wide range of their routers,” one person wrote. “As routers automatically updated and fetched the corrupted definition file, they started running out of filesystem space and memory and crashing.”

I am NOT taking 'PUSHES' from Asus. What the hell are they talking about?

[GnatGoSplat]

9 minutes ago, Zewtastic said:

I am NOT taking 'PUSHES' from Asus. What the hell are they talking about?

It's my understanding that ASD regularly phones home to Asus servers to download security definitions, much like an antivirus software would.  It seems to do this without our knowledge or approval.

[alfredog1976]

This was happening to me with a GT-AC5300. Rebooted 3 times until I saw this thread. Did a factory reset so waiting to see if this re-occurs. Checked the jffs directory and the files seems to be the new version (chknvram20230518)

[shaddai]

1 hour ago, Zewtastic said:

This event made it into https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/asus-fixes-error-that-caused-mass-router-outage-worldwide-for-2-days/

But I am still mystified.

 

No updates are coming to my router from ASUS secretly (to my knowledge), and my firmware had not been updated for maybe 6 months+.

 

This bug was sitting silently for how long and set to trigger at the end of May 16 2023?

 

I am NOT taking 'PUSHES' from Asus. What the hell are they talking about?

Herein lies the rub... you don't have automatic firmware updates enabled... but this ASD thing isn't firmware... it's something else likely we had no idea was even a part of these darn routers. I had no idea... and I regularly comb the admin website for curiosity's sake, among other things. I wonder if this has also happened in the past because I've had several times where the asus routers would just bog completely...

 

Boo Asus. You can do better. Now do better.

[Zewtastic]

This sounds extremely shady.
Why would it be a secret (if they do, do this).

And if they are sending code changes (secretly), I'm assuming they are also sniffing our activity for their own uses.

[GnatGoSplat]

It's not a secret, to the media, they've been pretty open about what happened.  Here's another article:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/hardware/asus-routers-knocked-offline-worldwide-by-bad-security-update/

 

It's just something most of us weren't aware that our routers do.  I had no idea, till now.  Now that I know, I feel like it should be an option that we can choose to enable or disable.

 

[vinnzxc]

Confirmed renaming / removing /jffs/asd/chknvram20230516 then restart can resolve the issue.

Happened to my 4G-AC68U overnight as well (I have restart scheduler enabled for every Sunday midnight).

[Gnuget]

According to the link shared before ASUS already fixed the problem in their servers.

I hard-reset my router yesterday and the problem was fixed as expected.

the ram and the CPU were always 100% before now the router is super relax.

 

[garymal]

Found this on ASUS Support site:

 

Interruption in Router Product Connectivity and Urgent Mitigation Measures

Dear Valued Customer,
During routine security maintenance, our technical team discovered an error in the configuration of our server settings file, which could potentially cause an interruption in network connectivity on part of the routers.
• Our technical team has urgently addressed the server issue and impacted routers should return to normal operation. If your device was affected, we recommend the following:
1. Manually reboot your router
2. If rebooting does not resolve the issue, please save the settings file, perform a hard reset (factory default), and then re-upload the settings file (follow the directions in the https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1050464)
3. If you cannot access the user interface to save settings or perform a reset, you can press the RESET button for about 5-10 seconds until the power LED indicator on the router starts to blink, which means the reset is completed.
https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1000925/#m2
If there are any further developments around this issue, we will immediately update our users.
We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this incident may have caused and are committed to preventing such an incident from happening again.
For any further inquiries about your ASUS router, please contact our customer service for support.
USA & Canada Hot line 1-812-282-2787

Thank you for your understanding and thank you for choosing ASUS.