C
MODERATE RISK
MikroTik's flagship consumer router. Latvian headquarters with no Chinese government legal exposure. Assembled in China — subject to the March 2026 FCC foreign manufacture ban. Same RouterOS strengths and same complexity risks as the hAP ax². Hardening RouterOS is essential and non-trivial; the defaults are not secure out of the box.
- Foreign manufacture — FCC ban applies: The hAP ax³ is assembled in China. The FCC's March 23, 2026 ban covers manufacturing origin. No US manufacturing exemption is on file.
- RouterOS misconfiguration risk: MikroTik defaults leave multiple management services exposed. Documented cases exist of hAP series routers being compromised through Winbox and API endpoints left open. Hardening is required.
- WAN-exposed management interface — default: RouterOS exposes management services on all interfaces by default. Explicit firewall rules are required to restrict access to trusted sources only.
FCC & Ban Risk
53
/100
C
Supply chain · FCC status · CVEs · Patch support
Security Capabilities
44
/100
D
Zero-Trust · VPN · Segmentation · Monitoring
🏭 Manufacturer
Latvian-headquartered
Mikrotikls SIA, Riga, Latvia — privately held. Hardware assembled in China.
Manufactured in: China
🏛️ FCC Status
FCC authorized — foreign manufacture rule applies
Foreign manufacture — subject to FCC March 2026 ban
🛡️ Patch Support
Active
Whether security vulnerabilities are actively being patched
⚠️ Key Finding
high
Foreign manufacture — FCC ban applies
Router Security Updates
Get notified if new vulnerabilities are discovered for your MikroTik hAP ax³. Free, no spam.
🔒
Security capabilities comparison
We benchmark your router against Rio Router across 8 dimensions so you can see exactly what gaps exist - and what a fully-covered setup looks like.
MIKROTIK
your router
Rio Router™
full standard
Zero-Trust Device Admission
Every new device is blocked by default - admin must approve it once, even if it has the right password
Partial
Available
Network Segmentation (VLANs)
Devices on your network are isolated from each other, so a hacked smart TV can't reach your laptop
Available
Available
Router-Level VPN for All Devices
All traffic - including smart devices that can't run VPN apps - is encrypted before leaving your home
Available
Available
Domain Allowlisting
Block everything except approved sites; more effective than trying to blacklist billions of harmful URLs
Partial
Available
Granular Password Control
Separate passwords per network zone - changing one doesn't affect others
Partial
Available
Guest Auto-Expiry
Guest devices are automatically removed when they leave; neighbors can't reconnect without re-approval
Not available
Available
Clean Supply Chain
Manufactured outside Chinese legal jurisdiction - not subject to China's National Intelligence Law
Not available
Available
Active Threat Monitoring
DNS filtering, firewall, activity logs, and ongoing security patch support
Partial
Available
We use Rio Router as the benchmark because it’s the only consumer router built to score 8/8 on this framework - it shows you what a fully-covered setup looks like, not just what’s typical.
See Rio →
See all MikroTik models: MikroTik brand overview →
What you should do
1
Disable all WAN-facing management immediately (IP → Services)
2
Apply RouterOS updates
3
Configure IP firewall to restrict management to LAN only
4
Plan hardware migration per FCC foreign manufacture rule
How this was scored · verified March 2026: This rating combines FCC authorization status, manufacturer legal jurisdiction, CVEs from NIST NVD, active patch support status, and CISA advisory mentions. See full methodology →
Reference Data
Sources & evidence
All findings trace to publicly verifiable primary sources - US government databases, official FCC filings, and NIST CVE records. No proprietary or anonymous sources are used.
Full data source documentation: Scoring Methodology & Citations →