A Critical Apache Struts Security Flaw Makes It 'Easy' To Hack Fortune 100 Firms (zdnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday September 5, 2017 @11:30AM from the easy-peasy dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: A critical security vulnerability in open-source server software enables hackers to easily take control of an affected server -- putting sensitive corporate data at risk. The vulnerability allows an attacker to remotely run code on servers that run applications using the REST plugin, built with Apache Struts, according to security researchers who discovered the vulnerability. All versions of Struts since 2008 are affected, said the researchers. Apache Struts is used across the Fortune 100 to provide web applications in Java, and it powers front- and back-end applications. Man Yue Mo, a security researcher at LGTM, who led the effort that led to the bug's discovery, said that Struts is used in many publicly accessible web applications, such as airline booking and internet banking systems. Mo said that all a hacker needs "is a web browser." "I can't stress enough how incredibly easy this is to exploit," said Bas van Schaik, product manager at Semmle, a company whose analytical software was used to discover the vulnerability. The report notes that "a source code fix was released some weeks prior, and Apache released a full patch on Tuesday to fix the vulnerability." It's now a waiting game for companies to patch their systems.

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Re:You'd think they'd put their money to good use! by Narcocide · 2017-09-05 12:47 · Score: 2

Oh, that's actually simple to answer. To the very last man, they'd all rather die than do anything that helps their competition even one tiny bit, even if they would have come out well ahead in the end. They simply don't buy into the old "a rising tide raises all ships" adage, and they're not interested enough in benevolent gestures to even invest serious time finding out it's true.
Re:Struts was garbage by Gr8Apes · 2017-09-05 13:32 · Score: 2

Struts was ok, considering when it was built. Struts 2 was an unmitigated disaster.

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The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Re:Yup, FOSS software sure is safe by Big+Hairy+Ian · 2017-09-05 23:19 · Score: 2

When the whole world can scour the code to find vulns, it has to be safe, right? Nobody will find those obscure bugs and use them for nefarious purposes, nope, never happen.
Because you'd rather only know about this shit when the NSA gets hacked??

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Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.