The Shellshock worm: the latest computer security problem: a hole found in Bash

This is a little complicated. In Unix and Linux systems, there is an underlying interface called The Shell. Some systems use Bash, the Bourne-Again Shell, others use slightly different ones, some Linux systems can have multiple shells installed at the same time for the convenience of programmers and administrators. The shell is comparable to a command line prompt on Windows or the Terminal interface on a Mac. In fact, I just noticed that my Mac runs Bash in its terminal window, there's no word yet as to whether or not Macs are affected. There's also a big question about what to do with Linux-based internet devices such as SANs or security DVRs or stuff like that, those are notorious in sometimes being difficult to update.

Well, it has a bug. And it has the potential to be as big or bigger than the Heartworm SSL problem. The only good thing about it is that it is easy to patch, one large provider said they'd patched 95% of their servers in about ten minutes.

http://www.wired.com/2014/09/internet-braces-crazy-shellshock-worm/

http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/09/24/1638207/remote-exploit-vulnerability-found-in-bash

It's Banned Book Week!

I really need to set up a better reminder for when it is. I'm not reading anything particularly banned right now, just finished Neil Gaimen's American Gods and am occasionally reading Band of Brothers (watched the whole thing when I was in Colorado a couple of weeks ago). I should get back to reading Karl Marx's Das Capital or Communist Manifesto, more properly titled, The Manifesto of the Communist Party, commissioned by the Communist Party in 1848ish.