“This vulnerability is an attacker’s dream come true,” Qualys researchers said on Wednesday, though “Nightmare” is a better word for it when you’re sitting on the security side of things.
‘ These vulnerabilities continue to underscore the criticality of securing Linux and open-source technologies.
“Given the breadth of the attack surface for this vulnerability across both Linux and non-Linux OS, Qualys recommends that users apply patches for this vulnerability immediately,” its researchers advised.
Vulcan Cyber’s Bar-Dayan called the open-source software model a two-edged blade: “On one side, everyone can look at the code and audit it to identify and patch vulnerabilities. On the other side, threat actors can look at the code and find subtle issues that everyone else has missed,” he explained.
There’s no one vendor to blame, and no one vendor to turn to for a fix: “Unlike fully proprietary systems where a single manufacturer can issue a single patch to address a vulnerability, a single open-source vulnerability can be present in multiple systems which then requires multiple manufacturers to separately develop, test, and distribute a patch,” Broomhead said.
“We will keep adopting new technologies in the Linux world that will introduce new vulnerabilities and problems for organizations. We are only just now getting our hands around cloud asset management, and asset management is essentially the first step of any security program.”
