Firmware update: Asuswrt-Merlin 384.18

Asus uses a Tomato-derived firmware called Asuswrt for its routers, such as the RT-AC68 and RT-AX88. This firmware is, with the exception of a few drivers, open source, whereby the closed binaries are included. Asuswrt-merlin, in turn, is a modified version of the original firmware from Asus. It includes bug fixes and minor improvements, but still tries to stay close to the original, so that it remains possible to add new features that Asus introduces to the code. The complete changelog for version 384.18 is up this page Here are the highlights in a nutshell:

Asuswrt-Merlin 384.18 and 384.13_10 now available

Asuswrt-Merlin 384.18 (current models) and 384.13_10 (RT-AC87U and RT-AC3200) is now available. The focus of this release was the merge of new GPL releases from Asus. 384.13_10 will probably be the final release for the RT-AC87U and RT-AC3200, due to the GPL code of these two models being currently completely out of sync with the code used by the other models.

Note:

• A number of changes for some models are not backward compatible with previous versions. Downgrading to a previous release will require a factory default reset afterward in many cases.

Updated:

• Merged GPL 384_8563 for AX models.
• Merged GPL 384_81918 for mainline models.
• Merged SDK + binary blobs 384_81918 for RT-AC86U.
• Merged SDK + binary blobs 384_81902 for RT-AC5300.
• Merged SDK + binary blobs 385_20490 for RT-AC68U.
• Merged binary blobs 385_20490 for RT-AC3100.
• Merged binary blobs 384_81918 for RT-AC88U.
• Merged SDK + binary blobs 384_8563 for RT-AX58U.
• amtm to 3.1.7.
• Root certificate bundle to June 3rd 2020.
• OUI database used by the webui.
• Dropbear 2020.80 (themiron)
• nano to 4.9.3.

Changed:

• Optimized OpenVPN routing policy storage (this change is NOT backward compatible with previous firmwares)

Fixed:

• ssh/scp client would fail to connect while negotiating a chacha20 connection (themiron)