An untold numbers of ZBT routers sold around the world as white-label products come with several implants built by the manufacturer.
August 27, 2026
A Chinese manufacturer has been planting backdoors inside of white-label routers sold in high volume around the globe.
Shenzhen Zhibotong Electronics Co. Ltd. (ZBT) sells gobs of routers every year, if public evidence is to be believed. The Shenzhen-based 15-year-old company is the bestselling router manufacturer on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.com, which lists its total annual output at 3.6 million units. Typically, those units are then sold to customers by companies other than ZBT, in countries like the Philippines, India, Canada, Australia, Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, Russia, and the US. According to its marketing, ZBT has exported its products to more than 50 countries and regions.
On Aug. 6, Jacob Baines, chief technology officer (CTO) at VulnCheck, revealed that ZBT's most updated router firmware contains a root-level backdoor. After a few more weeks of investigating, he discovered that, in fact, ZBT routers have contained a variety of backdoors dating several back years.
