For the two people that have not heard of the OpenSSL Heartbleed-Bug yet, let me start with a short explanation (taken from Heartbleed Bug😞
"The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows stealing the information protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet. SSL/TLS provides communication security and privacy over the Internet for applications such as web, email, instant messaging (IM) and some virtual private networks (VPNs).
The Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the memory of the systems protected by the vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software. This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content. This allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications, steal data directly from the services and users and to impersonate services and users."
So, is that a serious issue? Hell yeah! To quote Bruce Schneier: ""Catastrophic" is the right word. On the scale of 1 to 10, this is an 11."
You will see lots of people recommending you change your passwords on all https:// sites. While that is generally something that you want to do now and then (in my case that would probably require me to take a week off...) _right now_ is probably not the time (yet).
Let me explain:
While you're at it, it's probably also a good idea to renew any oAuth authorizations you may have given on thoise sites (like, allowing your blog to automatically post to Twitter).
This is going to be a loooong painful process for everyone. But there's no point running in a blind panic now. There's a lesson in there for everyone, I guess.
Edited on 2014-04-11 to address some of the comments:
There are two main messages I want to get across:
Other recommended blogs to read while you're waiting:
You must be a registered user to add a comment. If you've already registered, sign in. Otherwise, register and sign in.
User | Count |
---|---|
4 | |
3 | |
2 | |
2 | |
1 | |
1 | |
1 | |
1 | |
1 | |
1 |