Debian, Ubuntu flawed for two years

By

A research posting to the Debian security list last week has led to the confirmation of a serious hole in two flavours of the Open Source Linux operating system.


Frederick Lee, a researcher at insecurity company Fortify, said that the flaw, which affects Ubuntu as well as Debian, had been "seriously underestimated " as it makes the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) of the two Linux sustems vulnerable to malicious attack.

"We're calling this vulnerability 'insecure randomness' since it allows an attacker to predict the SSL cryptographic keys used for supposedly secure online transactions," he said.

Lee reckons that the flaw, which tinkers with the randomness engine used to encrypt secure transactions, could be used to intercept traffic between a user and supposedly secure connection between a user and, for example, an online banking site.
Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
theinquirer.net (c) 2010 Incisive Media
Tags:

Most Read Articles

SA Water plans 'once-in-a-generation' core technology uplift

SA Water plans 'once-in-a-generation' core technology uplift

TAFE NSW, NESA land tech funding in state budget

TAFE NSW, NESA land tech funding in state budget

Victoria's first government tech chief steps down

Victoria's first government tech chief steps down

Anthropic wins key US ruling on AI training in authors' copyright lawsuit

Anthropic wins key US ruling on AI training in authors' copyright lawsuit

Log In

  |  Forgot your password?