Heartbleed Bug: Serious Hole in Internet Security

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Markbnj

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Not only do you have to patch, you have to re-issue new certificates. About it being unknown is wishful thinking because again there is no way at all to tell if somebody was doing it.

I can assure you there are very smart hackers that are constantly trying to hack SSL. Getting the private keys to the cert is the gold mine jackpot. If somebody looked at the source code for it I'm sure they could easily reverse engineer it and notice the memory problem. Being open source I would assume the source code is readily available?

The cert thing is a definite pain in the ass, but it mostly hits orgs with the resources to deal with it. And as has been said elsewhere, maybe the cost will be a kick in the tail that encourages them to get more involved and put some dollars where their interests lie.

Anyway, I have nothing to go on other than my instinct, which still leans towards "It'll blow over relatively quickly."
 

dennilfloss

Past Lifer 1957-2014 In Memoriam
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IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
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Exactly! I AM GOB SMACKED.

I'm not sure why you think this is a huge revelation. You do know most software has bugs, right? And you do know that bugs generally aren't intentional, right? In this case, the guy made a simple mistake and the reviewer didn't catch it either.
 

Virgorising

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2013
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I'm not sure why you think this is a huge revelation. You do know most software has bugs, right? And you do know that bugs generally aren't intentional, right? In this case, the guy made a simple mistake and the reviewer didn't catch it either.


I expressed my reactions actually. Nothing to apologize for. I am not as defensively chilled out and cynical and sanguine as you are, nor would I ever wanna be.

Especially, given most people assumed some malfeasance and purposeful chinanery were at play here.
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
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I expressed my reactions actually. Nothing to apologize for. I am not as defensively chilled out and cynical and sanguine as you are, nor would I ever wanna be.

I'm not asking you to apologize. I'm asking why you think that it is such a stunning revelation that someone made a mistake in the code. Coding mistakes happen all the time but unfortunately, this particular mistake has really bad consequences compared to most.

Especially, given most people assumed some malfeasance and purposeful chinanery were at play here.

They can remove their tinfoil hats now. It's safe.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
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lol so he made a minor change to fix a bug but made a bug and was missed by reviewing and testing resulting in all hell breaking loose.

i think he used to work at my company hahahah
 

Virgorising

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2013
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I'm not asking you to apologize. I'm asking why you think that it is such a stunning revelation that someone made a mistake in the code. Coding mistakes happen all the time but unfortunately, this particular mistake has really bad consequences compared to most.

They can remove their tinfoil hats now. It's safe.

Bottom line, this event, its magnitude and impact both: unique in cyber history. End of story.
 

Virgorising

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2013
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I still don't get why you're so surprised.

Programmers are human, and humans make mistakes...

Let me try again, never before to my knowledge has some MISTAKE of this sort, impacted as many in the world as THIS ONE.

No professional gets it right all the time. This is about worldwide IMPACT. In that, this event, so far....is UNIQUE.
 
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Lean L

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Apr 30, 2009
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K....so, private keys are not at risk?

At Least they can't use the thing to compromise them?

That is one of the best articles posted about the issue in this thread and answers your question perfectly. Just read the thing.

In short, it's possible but rare (Their case study was NGINX) since the private key would not be as likely to stay in memory after SSL is initialized. It's rare to find that piece of information to begin with due to the random data that is retrieved anyways.

But seriously... READ that article.
 

Virgorising

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2013
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That is one of the best articles posted about the issue in this thread and answers your question perfectly. Just read the thing.

In short, it's possible but rare (Their case study was NGINX) since the private key would not be as likely to stay in memory after SSL is initialized. It's rare to find that piece of information to begin with due to the random data that is retrieved anyways.

But seriously... READ that article.

I did read it. Truth is, I am so creeped out, I could not totally believe it.
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
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K....so, private keys are not at risk?

At Least they can't use the thing to compromise them?

Sure they are. They are extremely difficult to access after the first request due to the contents of the memory being unpredictable, but it's possible. Heck, there are DoS attacks/exploits that could be used to force a reboot for a first request. Someone try sending that honeypot the ol', Win95 Ping of Death. ;)