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by tikums 4102 days ago
> Wouldn't any process running as root on the computer be able to re-flash the router?

No, because router's management interface is only available out-of-band. This is a conscious design decision to mitigate against this threat: "In order to protect the PORTAL from tampering from malware (or malicious users), it also requires a third administration interface. This can be either a serial console, or physical connection."[0]

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[0] http://grugq.github.io/blog/2013/10/05/thru-a-portal-darkly/