A newly found bug dubbed as Shellshock Bash has security expert worried as it could be a much bigger threat than infamous Heartbleed bug which made headlines earlier this year. As this bug affects devices that run on Unix many electronics devices that run on Mac operating system and Linux can be vulnerable to Shellshock bash bug. But that’s not all there is a long list of portable devices that would also come under scanner.
What is Shallshok Bash Bug:
The bug was given the name as it uses Shell otherwise known as Prompt Command to interact(attack) with other computers. Once the bug establishes a connection with your device it attacks your device’s Bash and hack your device. Experts believe that Shellshock Bash Bug can be the biggest online security threat as makes a range of big and small devices vulnerable to the attack.
Shellshock Bash bug can not only affect your computer but digital cameras, storage card, VCRs, game console etc.
What is at Risk and why?
Although the vulnerability has been recently found security experts at Errata Security believe that it would been existed for last 20 years. But the experts fear that now that hackers are aware of the vulnerability they can manipulate it to take over smart devices like never before.
If you don’t have a firewall installed in your computer it makes the job easy for cyber attackers so you would want to check that your firewall protection is up and running or installone if you already haven’t.
Apparently, once an attacker befriended your device he can install a malware to and practically take control of your device. He can easily copy, delete, paste, lock or unlock a particular device with the help of Shellshock Bash Bug.
Solution:
As scary as it sound the bug is not that hard to concur a bunch of software majors have already released patches for the vulnerability. The Shellshock vulnerability would have been much better handled if it has not been neglected all these years. Nevertheless, now that it has come to light more and more software makers are coming with a fix but sadly not all small devices are frequently updated so Shellshock Bash Bug may linger for longer than it should.
