We’ve heard of heroes saving the world and epic stories in Hollywood movies but by far this story that I just picked up from the net takes the cake.
Imagine this – a simple program that once deployed, would shatter the very fabrics of the internet. The attacker would receive unrestricted access to everything online: your passwords, bank accounts, e-mails, everything. And the saddest part was, it was astoundingly simple.
But to be on the safe side, Vixie decided to call Kaminsky. He picked up immediately and within minutes had outlined the flaw. A series of emotions swept over Vixie. What he was hearing shouldn’t be possible, and yet everything the kid said was logical. By the end of the third minute, Vixie realized that Kaminsky had uncovered something that the best minds in computer science had overlooked. This affected not just BIND 9 but almost all DNS software. Vixie felt a deep flush of embarrassment, followed by a sense of pure panic.
Read the whole article. It is spine chilling to know that the trust that we placed upon computer “experts” and security “professionals” can be broken down by one simple hacker.
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