router question...

[Dave <dlaud.flux () gmail com>]

I had an odd experience yesterday and was wandering if anyone could help 
shed some light on it...

I run a webserver that I keep behind a router/firewall. The router is a 
standard store bought Linksys BEFSX41. The firewalls NAT feature is 
disabled so someone on the local LAN can access the server via it's 
Internet  domain name. The routers 'remote administration' feature is 
disabled so no one outside the LAN can log into the config page.

The problem: Yesterday a couple of the websites being hosted on the 
server were basiclly unavailable. At first we were thinking DoS of some 
sort but no evidence in the servers logs to support this as far as I 
know. At any rate, when I would try to access the problem page I was 
greeted with the router log in prompt! I (using a local machine) log 
into the router to verify that the 'remote administration' option is 
dissabled...it was. So why when I tried to access the troubled website 
via domain name (www.troubled_site.com) I was greeted with my routers 
log in prompt?

The routers firmware is up to date...I call linksys and asked if they 
knew what it could be. they did not know. I looked for and asked if 
anyone knew of any exploit code that could do this to this router...no 
luck (doesnt mean it doesnt exist). So why was my router (for a short 
time only) prompting website visitors with it's log in prompt?

Any ideas / comments appreciated.

dave

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