Here’s another reminder of how important it is to update everything under your control.
Researchers at a security vendor say a public exploit in the popular PHP scripting language used by many companies for writing Web applications is still being used some 22 months after being discovered. The exploit, which allows hackers to remotely take control of Apache servers, is still being used by attackers according to a blog posted Thursday by Imperva.
Briefly, the vulnerability in older versions of PHP allows attackers to place command line options in the query string, including one that can manipulate PHP security settings that bypass security checks and allow remote code execution.
Imperva researchers believe the sophistication of the 43 different types of payload data in the attacks its honeypot attracted suggests bot herding is going on, where the Internet is being scanned for servers exposed the vulnerability to infect them with bot clients.
Yet while the vulnerability was announced in 2012 and an exploit discovered last October, there are still a number of unsecured servers.
As the blog notes, it shows cybercriminals understand how long it takes between the time a vulnerability is publicized and the time it is patched.