This vulnerability exists in the TP-Link Archer C50 due to presence of terminal access on a serial interface without proper access control. An attacker with physical access could exploit this by accessing the UART shell on the vulnerable device. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow the attacker to obtain Wi-Fi credentials of the targeted system.
The product stores sensitive information in cleartext within a resource that might be accessible to another control sphere.
Because the information is stored in cleartext (i.e., unencrypted), attackers could potentially read it. Even if the information is encoded in a way that is not human-readable, certain techniques could determine which encoding is being used, then decode the information. When organizations adopt cloud services, it can be easier for attackers to access the data from anywhere on the Internet. In some systems/environments such as cloud, the use of “double encryption” (at both the software and hardware layer) might be required, and the developer might be solely responsible for both layers, instead of shared responsibility with the administrator of the broader system/environment.