Shell shock - Bash bug
 

Can anyone explain this for dummies (pssst Vasu)?

I read a few articles to find out how it might affect me or what I can do or update.... but most made very little sense to me. Does it only affect Linux/Apple systems?

Yeah I don't even know what I'm meant to be updating? My website or my computer? @_@

I read more about it at lunch and it sounds like people who hosts websites needs to update it..??? I dunno @_@_@ I was thinking if we don't understand it then it means it's nothing within our control LOL

^loll

I just read some article too and it says it only affects Mac and Linux? And Windows is fine?

So confusing..

I find this one easier to understand than others:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technol...er-one-4321560

And since when were there internet connected lightbulbs?? so you can turn on and off your lights at home when you're not at home?? and if it gets hacked then someone will be turning your lights on and off?? @_@_@_@_@_@

Since people become fancy and said you can control all your home appliances with your iPad...

It's the Internet of Things!!

They have like thermometers that are connected to the internet and stuff!

Bash is like the command prompt for Mac and Linux computers. Over 50% of web servers run some variant of Linux so they'll be at risk although some variants already released patches to fix the bug. Apple itself hasn't released a patch yet, probably incoming.

As for home appliances, they are all also at risk, and it's kinda uncommon to see software updates or patches for those so who knows what will happen lol.

But yeah, unless you're a sysadmin dealing with web servers or if you have these kind of home appliances you shouldn't be worried. Even if you have a Linux/Mac computer; patch it when the update comes out for sure; but nobody can take over your computer most probably because your firewall will stop it. Only "server" type devices which take requests from other devices are at risk. To use Hessah's example of a light, the iPad would be the client sending a request and the light would be the server taking the request. Your iPad itself isn't normally configured to take requests so unless somebody has your iPad with them they wouldn't be able to exploit this bug. Of course if they had it with them they wouldn't need to go through this bug and would just do whatever they wanted. :p

LOL! ahhaaha

What if you're someone accessing the website that uses bash?

The way you described it doesn't make it sound that bad, but all the articles make it sound really bad.

Yeah. they keep saying it's bigger than heartbleed....

Heartbleed = affects more people but only steal data
Shell shock = affects less people but controls their devices??

I guess lol

Hmm well it's not really bad for your devices is what I should say. In many ways it is worse than Heartbleed yeah.

With Heartbleed, people could make a server tell you what was in the RAM of the machine, and that could have been anything; something trivial like the date or maybe something more critical like the encryption keys they use. Basically there was a good possibility that something would get leaked but it wasn't in the control of the "hacker." With this bug though an outsider can actively give commands to the system and make it do things like run programs, delete files etc etc.

So yeah your personal devices are fine, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to do another round of password resets when the time comes.

I thought this was going to be a video game.

like Bioshock LOL

Thanks Vasu!