This post is just a collection of my notes and experiences reversing, compiling and emulating Asus proprietary and Asuswrt-Merlin software, on an Ubuntu 20.04 box. It’s a bit of a pain really, I thought it would be pretty easy but everything’s been an issue, which is also what makes it sorta fun.

Worked primarily with https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng for the RT-AX88U router, but some binaries are just closed-source :/

My whole perspective on “modern appliances” changed within the last few years, and I’ve started to look at things with a different mindset. In the past I’ve avoided anything “smart” because I didn’t want it on my home network. Perhaps the utility of some of them slowly won me over (read: neat stuff they do), but these days if I’m looking to buy something, most of the time it gets bonus points for being “smart”. I just want to take them home, connect them to my lab wifi and hack them. For instance, we just got a smart humidifier. What the hell? Why would they make that? Convenience I guess, but it’s awesome and I can’t wait to scan it.