Is it possible to provide malware from a router?

Question

I received a disturbing mail containing the password for my desktop computer account. In this mail the hacker stated that he used a vulnerability in my router with CVE: CVE-2020-1672. After searching for this CVE I found https://www.cvedetails.com and https://cve.mitre.org, but I did not find this specific CVE code. Can anybody provide material to read about it? Or is it common that ransomware hackers will tell you "ha, I hacked you that way" and in reality me or my wife just went to a malicious webpage?

The hacker states, that he made backups of my data, also containing personal data, and used the webcam to take some screenshots. He will encrypt all my data and send compromising material to my contact list.

I am using EA2700 Linksys as my W-LAN router and Fritz!Box 7412 for connecting to the internet. All my devices are either Android based or use Windows 10 as OS.

Is it possible to provide malware from a router? Would the hacker need to change DNS for that? I checked this but there only standard DNS Gateways configured. Might the hack have taken place more than a year ago? This was when we moved and I started using the Fritz!Box due to a new provider and also reset the linksys device.

I am using Bitdefender Internet Security 2019 on most of the devices that has been connected to the router. It states that it has a ransomware security tool which will prevent ransomware from encrypting my data. Has anybody an idea how that really works? Is this something I can rely on?

A colleague whom I told about the hack told me to check out dd-wrt. Can flashing my router with this (custom?) firmware realy increase my security?

Sorry for asking that much but I am a little bit worried.

Answer 1

That CVE number is totally bogus. The format for CVE's is CVE-[YEAR]-[number], so any CVE issues this year would start with CVE-2019, CVE-2020 won't be around until next year. The fact that you couldn't find the number on Mitre's website confirms that.

Mails like the one you received are scams. They try to make some quick money by threatening to disclose private information. To scare you off a bit, leaked password dumps from websites are used to "prove" that they have information on you. I've seen dozens of them sent to my various personal addresses in the last couple of months. Since I use a unique emailaddress for every website I need to create an account on, it's often easy to trace the mail back to a specific site, which almost always has had a password leak.

Personally, I wouldn't be worried about such threads.

To finally answer your original question: it could be possible, but there are many easier ways to gain access to someones computer and files, mostly through outdated software and tricking people to install something they shouldn't.