What Is UPnP and Why Is It a Security Risk?

This advisory details how Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) — designed for convenience — creates significant enterprise risk due to lack of authentication, silent port forwarding, and widespread misconfiguration; it cites historical exploits (Mirai botnet, EternalSilence, Flash UPnP), outlines detection methods (Nmap upnp-info, SSDP log inspection, external scans) and recommends mitigation steps such as disabling UPnP, blocking SSDP, segmenting IoT devices, and vendor controls.