Grade F · High Risk
Is Zyxel Safe?
Zyxel is a Taiwan-headquartered company, but its routers are manufactured in China and have a critical CVE history including CISA-flagged vulnerabilities. F grade.
Zyxel is a Taiwan-headquartered company, but its routers are manufactured in China and have a critical CVE history including CISA-flagged vulnerabilities. F grade.
Zyxel Networks Corporation is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It has no Chinese ownership and is not subject to China's National Intelligence Law. However, Zyxel's consumer routers - including the Armor AX7800 and Multy M1 - are manufactured in China. More significantly, Zyxel has one of the worst CVE records among non-Chinese router brands, with multiple critical vulnerabilities that were added to the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. CVE-2022-30525 allowed unauthenticated remote code execution on Zyxel firewalls and was actively exploited in the wild. The combination of China manufacturing and a poor patch history puts Zyxel at higher risk than other Taiwan-based brands like Asus or Synology.
Bottom line: Taiwan ownership with no ban risk, but one of the worst CVE records among non-Chinese brands. Patch promptly. Consider replacing older Zyxel models that are past end-of-life.
Zyxel Networks Corporation is incorporated in the Cayman Islands with its principal operations in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Unizyx Holding Corporation, a Taiwan-based holding entity. Zyxel was founded in 1989 and operates under Taiwanese corporate law. Consumer router hardware including the Armor and Multy product lines is manufactured in China. Zyxel is not subject to China's National Intelligence Law as a Taiwan-owned company, but the manufacturing origin in China creates supply chain considerations. Zyxel's enterprise networking division operates under closer security controls than the consumer router division.
All Zyxel models in our database. Click a model for its full security report.
| Model | Grade | FCC Status | Security Support | Made In |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armor AX7800 | F | FCC authorized - foreign manufacture rule applies | Active | China |
| Multy M1 | F | FCC authorized - foreign manufacture rule applies | Active | China |
Zyxel is a Taiwan company with no ban risk or Chinese ownership concern. However, it has one of the worst CVE records among non-Chinese consumer router brands. Critical vulnerabilities like CVE-2022-30525 were actively exploited and added to the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list. If you have a Zyxel router, ensure it is running the latest firmware and check whether your model is still receiving updates.
Yes. Zyxel consumer routers including the Armor and Multy product lines are manufactured in China. Zyxel Networks is a Taiwan company (Hsinchu) and is not subject to China's National Intelligence Law, but the China manufacturing does introduce supply chain considerations.
Zyxel is not on the FCC Covered List and is not banned in the US. It is a Taiwan-headquartered company with no Chinese government ownership. The risks with Zyxel are CVE history and active exploitation of its vulnerabilities, not national security ownership concerns.
CVE-2022-30525 is a critical unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability affecting Zyxel firewalls (USG FLEX series and ATP series). It allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary OS commands with no authentication required. It was added to the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog and was actively used in real-world attacks. Patch your Zyxel firmware if you have not already done so.
Asus is the safer choice. Both are Taiwan companies with no ban risk, but Asus has a better CVE track record and faster patch cadence than Zyxel for consumer products. Asus also offers stronger security features (AiProtection, VPN, AiMesh). If you are choosing between the two, Asus is generally the better security option at similar price points.
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