Is elderly equipment okay to use behind a router?

[Kawazuki]

I use my ISP (Virgin in the UK) router which I, perhaps naively, assume is kept up to date with security patches. I don't use the wifi embedded in the router.

Hanging off the router I have a wifi access point running the latest available firmware which is roughly five years old (that is, the date on the firmware is about five years ago).  Also I have some powerline adapters hanging off it which are quite old as well. Am I taking a big risk here, or is the fact that my elderly equipment is behind the NAT firewall in the router keeping me safe?

[deanwebb]

Moved to home networking, per OP request.

[deanwebb]

Now the response... you're as safe as anyone else with end-of-life consumer gear.

Put another way, is the vendor still maintaining and updating that wifi access point? If not, then as vulnerabilities are discovered, it will NOT be patched. And I don't necessarily trust the ISP 100% to be on top of proper updates for all of *their* gear, either. So, your main defense is that wifi access point, and it may be due for an upgrade, for security's sake.

[Dieselboy]

The sad thing is, even with new equipment - if it's not being actively maintained with updates then it's as good as old equipment.

This is why I dont recommend cheap smartphones / tablets.

Though you can limit your attack surface by making the old equipment as dumb as possible for your needs (which is what I think you have done, by turning off the wifi). At that point I Think you're just using it as a layer 2 switch. Only IP accessible from inside your home network. Just make sure uPNP is turned off on the outside just in case.

[icecream-guy]

yeah, my Netgear WIFI router sits behind my Cisco ASA 5525 firewall, it needs to be upgraded, but will require full reconfiguration after upgrade. that will cause a network outage.  I probably should just buy a new one. and upgrade, then build a new WIFI network with new SSID.  then migrate devices to new and decommission old