O2 HomeBox 6441 > Potential security issue with USB devices

Hi there,

I have an O2 HomeBox 6441 which has a USB port to which you can connect storage devices. According to the FAQs:

"Angeschlossene USB-Speicher können am O2 Router über das Netzwerk als Laufwerk, Mediaserver (UPnP) oder FTP-Server verfügbar gemacht werden. Standardmäßig ist der Zugriff auf den USB-Speicher unbeschränkt."

I wanted to share some files on my network so I connected a USB stick and verified it was connected in default gateway router admin page. I then set up some credentials.

When trying to access the location from a Windows 10 PC, I got an error, saying that it was not possible to connect to the USB because it was insecure. The specific error:

\\192.161.1.1\Drive1_1 is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

You cannot connect to the file share because it's not secure. This share requires the obselete SMB1 protocol, whic is unsafe and could expose your system to attack. Your system required SMB2 or higher. For more info on resolving this issue, see:
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?linkid=852747

A quick bit of research shows that SMB1 protocol is over 30 years old and has been universally condemned as unsafe. Microsoft publicly deprecated the SMBv1 protocol in 2014.

In order to check if this was really the problem on my system, I temporarily enabled SMB1 protocol on my PC (it is disabled in Windows 10 by default these days) and then connected to the USB drive via the network and could access it (read + write). I immediately disabled SMB1 once the test was complete.

So, a couple of questions:

1) Does the HomeBox 6441 only support SMBv1?
2) If the answer to 1) is yes, are there plans to upgrade the firmware to be in line with current security recommendations?
3) If the answer to 1) is no, am I missing some important configuration which will allow me to use the network-attached storage using SMB2 or SMB3?

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

P.s. I have an account tied to my DSL contract but it was impossible to log in here with it and when I tried to follow the steps to create a new account and couple it, it just kept trying to reset my password...bizarre. I created a new account, and then another account within that just to write this forum post!