Alternative firmware for the router. How dangerous is she?

Question

network hardware

Is there any chance that the author of an alternative firmware for the router will be able to access the transmitted data, such as passwords from mail, sites, services, etc.

Answer 1

It depends. Alternative firmware may be more trustworthy than factory firmware. For example, if the source code of the firmware is available and it is possible to build using your own tools[ 1 ]. In addition, it is worth paying attention to the trust in the community firmware and the history of vulnerabilities.
Thus, installing no name proprietary firmware instead of a factory one can pose a security risk, unlike installing free firmware that has a large user community (for example, OpenWrt ).