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Data Privacy Alert Vol 13.82 – The GHOST vulnerability - what you need to know

network security , Linux , Security Program , Information Security , Hackers , GHOST , Security Alert , cannabis , Enterprise , Data Breach

Michelle Drolet

The funkily-named bug of the week is GHOST. Its official moniker is the less catchy CVE-2015-0235, and it's a vulnerability caused by a buffer overflow in a system library that is used in many, if not most, Linux distributions. A buffer overflow is where you assume, for example, that when you handle a four-byte network number written out as decimal digits, you will never get anything longer than 255. 255. 255. 255. That takes up 15 characters, so you may decide that you'll never need more thanfalse