AX55 Whitelist not working properly
With the latest firmware, the whitelist feature under Advanced, Security, Access Control is not working correctly. After enabling Access Control, the Allow List is pre-populated with all the currently connected devices. That’s OK. However the device list also contains entries of older devices which are no longer in the network. Access Control was previously enabled last year when the router was using an older firmware version. Later, Access Control was disabled and the older devices were replaced with newer ones.
In trying to update the list, under Modify, clicking the delete icon displays a message asking if you are sure that you want to delete the device. Clicking OK displays a message stating “Operation succeeded” but the device continues to be displayed in the list.
After adding a new device to the list, it was possible to delete it so the problem is only with the older entries. Perhaps a factory reset will fix everything but that will have to wait until the network can be taken down.
During the last several days, six tests were carried out on the whitelist issue and are detailed below. The issue was initially reported as not being able to delete a device from the access control list after going through the delete sequence (i.e., click the Modify icon, answer the prompt, receive the “Operation succeeded” message). The cause of this issue was determined during the first two tests.
Before each test, a factory reset was done on the router and a backup file was used to restore the configuration settings. The web interface of the router was accessed using a laptop directly connected to one of its LAN ports. No other devices were connected to the router during testing.
For each test, the router was accessed and the Access Control page was selected (under Advanced, Security). Initially disabled, Access Control was then enabled. The devices list has 47 devices from the backup file. With the page only showing some 6 devices at a time, it is necessary to scroll down the list to view all the entries.
The connected PC does not initially appear in the list and it is necessary to move off the access control page and then return for it to be displayed. Now with 48 devices in the list, the first six entries are shown as follows:
Test 1
1. For this test, the devices selected for deletion were devices at or near the bottom of the list.
2. After scrolling to the bottom of the list, the last item was deleted by clicking the Modify icon. After deletion, the displayed list remained the same with the last entry still in the list. What was NOT known during the initial reporting was that another device higher up in the list had been deleted and because only 6 devices appear at a time, the bottom of the list did not change. Close examination of the list showed that Device 38 (instead of 48) had been deleted and now there were only 47 total devices.
3. Again, the last device was clicked for deletion. The displayed list did not change. Again, reviewing the entire list showed Device 37 was deleted, now leaving 46 total devices.
4. This time, the next to the last device (Device 45) was clicked for deletion. Device 35 was the one deleted leaving 45 devices.
5. After the first four deletions where the deleted device was positioned 10 positions higher up in the list, the distance between the devices decreased to 9 positions, then to 7, gradually decreasing until the list was small. With 23 remaining devices, clicking the last device for deletion would delete the prior entry.
Test 2
Test 1 was repeated with the same results but on a different router (another AX55 V1)
Test 3
1. For this test, the device selected for deletion was always the device at the top of the list (the one following the connected PC).
2. Deleting the devices worked as expected, i.e., the device would be deleted from the list with the remaining devices moving up in the list. Everything went well until Device 13 (from the original list) was next. The first click did not delete the device, but a second try was successful.
3. Again everything went well until Device 21 was next. After 4 attempts, it could not be deleted. The next device in the list was clicked with no success. A second attempt to delete the next device suddenly caused the Device 21 to be deleted and the next device to move up.
4. The rest of the list was deleted normally, one-by-one, with an occasional second try needed for the deletion.
Test 4
Test 3 was repeated with the same results on another AX55 V1.
Test 5
1. For this test, starting at the top of the list, 7 random devices were selected for deletion.
2. The results were:
Device 7 deleted correctly leaving 47 devices remaining.
Device 11 deleted correctly leaving 46 devices remaining.
Attempting to delete Device 18 deleted Device 17.
Attempting to delete Device 24 deleted Device 19.
Attempting to delete Device 32 deleted Device 27.
Attempting to delete Device 38 deleted Device 33.
Attempting to delete Device 42 (the last entry) deleted Device 37.
Test 6
1. For this test, starting at the top of the list, the same random devices from Test 5 were selected for deletion.
2. The results for the first three deletions were the same as those in Test 5. The last four deletions were slightly different as shown below:
Attempting to delete Device 24 deleted Device 18.
Attempting to delete Device 32 deleted Device 26.
Attempting to delete Device 38 deleted Device 31.
Attempting to delete Device 42 (the last entry) deleted Device 35.
Conclusion
Unless the user is deleting an entry at or near the top of the access control list, the entry to be deleted may remain in the list and a different entry deleted instead. The code for editing the list is broken and needs to be fixed.