Shellshock bug - you might be next

Shellshock bug is a security vulnerability that affects users all over the world. This bug is relevant to machines that run on MAC, Linux and Windows operating systems. According to a number of news reports, this is a deadly serious vulnerability that can affect more than 500 million computers worldwide. Shellshock transcends the understanding of your average security bug because it can also affect servers and various devices that run on any of the aforementioned operating systems. The problem lies in a software component called Bash, and with this one vulnerability Shellshock can prove to be quite “shocking.”

The point of this security bug is that if cyber criminals make use of Shellshock, they can virtually control remotely any system that uses Bash UNIX shell. Although various security vulnerabilities are discovered every now and then, security experts claim that Shellshock is a lot more dangerous that Heartbleed that was discovered back in April. While Heartbleed was there to spy on unsuspecting users, Shellshock can leave the system’s door wide open, and almost anyone could access it as long as they knew how to do it. Security experts are particularly concerned about web servers that run on the Apache system because this system has the Bash component.

With the vulnerability discovered, a warning about Shellshock bug was issued immediately, and system administrators were urged to apply patches. Nevertheless, with everything happening so quickly, it is sometimes hard to say whether patches are complete, and whether it is enough to protect the system from exploitation via Shellshock bug. Security firms have suggested that Shellshock has already been used to infect web servers with malware. What is more, Shellshock bug is a rather easy vulnerability, so hackers exploit it to attack various systems. However, the thing computer users at home should be worried of hardware updates. Users are strongly recommended to update their broadband routers the moment manufacturer sites releases an update.

The emergence of Shellshock bug sheds more light onto the peculiarities of the software industry. One of the main problems is that quite often important products are created and maintained by volunteers. They either do not have resources to take care of the system securities or they are leaving various bugs on purpose to drag attention from major tech firms.

The bottom line is that there are several systematic mistakes that get repeated over and over again. As a result, the likes of Shellshock emerge. There is nothing a regular computer user can do about it, but we can raise awareness about the faulty practices within the entire technology industry, and hope that in the long run some changes will be made.