Comment by philipwhiuk
1 day ago
This is gonna rinse so many LAMP WordPress installs where the PHP version is either not getting a patch or the hosting is managed by the user via a contractor or the hosting is managed by a company with a fleet of custom servers etc etc.
I can think of some really ancient phpBB boards that probably won't ever come back if they get hit.
They might be fine if they are still on php4...
It's sad how many wordpress installs haven't been patched in a decade. they're so old even new exploits aren't supported.
ha! Who knew ignoring critical updates and continuing to run deprecated software while kicking the can down the road while focusing solely on building new features would turn out to be the best security policy after all.
That was how a cluster of Java servers at a former employer avoided the Log4j vulnerability. Though I think they'd be on at least PHP 5 by now (maybe even PHP 7!), so they can't dodge two bullets.
We almost need some bot that logs in to every vulnerable PHP server and turns it off to prevent it being properly exploited before the server admin updates it..
Kindware instead of malware. Just goes around finding vulnerabilities and using them to patch things and improve security everywhere.
Benevolent worms.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/12/benevolent_wo...
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If people wait too long you could even have the bot use the exploit to update the PHP version.
Nice idea, but I don't think you would want e.g. your hospital to have their systems suddenly turn off.
Absolutely they do. Off today is better than a ransomware attack tommorrow.
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Turning off is better than silent data manipulation by an attacker.
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I’ve thought about doing this in the past but have no trust in police to see it as a Good Samaritan act
dozens of thousands if not hundreds of Drupal 7 sites running php 7