Heartbleed Web Bug Might Expose Vast Amounts Of Private Data

By Konrad Krawczyk

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A serious vulnerability in the OpenSSL Internet encryption protocol known as the Heartbleed bug has potentially left the information of most Internet users vulnerable to hackers.

That's according to a team of Codenomicon researchers, as well as Google Security researcher Neel Mehta. Codenomicon is a Web security firm whose clients include Microsoft, Verizon, and Cisco Systems. The Heartbleed bug reportedly affects as much as 66 percent of the world's active websites, and has existed for roughly two years.

OpenSSL is a method of encryption employed by many websites that safeguard the data you type into your Web browser. OpenSSL contains a function known as a heartbeat option. With it, while a person is visiting a website that encrypts data using OpenSSL, his computer periodically sends and receives messages to check whether both his PC and the server on the other end are both still connected. The Heartbleed bug means hackers can send fake heartbeat messages, which can trick a site's server into relaying data that's stored in its RAM — including sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, emails, and more.

MORE: Here's a list of websites allegedly affected by the Heartbleed Bug

"Considering the long exposure, ease of exploitation, and attacks leaving no trace, this exposure should be taken seriously," Codenomicon warns.

The security researchers who uncovered the hole say that hackers who exploit the Heartbleed bug can steal all that and more, even instant messages and business documents. The researchers tested the flaw out for themselves, and discovered that they were able to steal such information without leaving any trace of their attack, and also without the benefit of any "privileged information," including log-in credentials.

What can you do to protect yourself from the Heartbleed bug?

Aside from avoiding affected sites, which reportedly include Yahoo and OkCupid, and changing your passwords, there's not much you can do to safeguard your data. It's up to individual companies to update their websites and services to use the fixed version of OpenSSL, which plugs the hole left by Heartbleed — stanching the bleeding, so to speak. The researchers that took the wraps off the bug say it's the responsibility of operating system vendors, software makers, and network hardware vendors to use the new version, which they call FixedSSL.

At this point, both Amazon and Yahoo are working to apply the fix across all of their services, with the latter indicating that they've done so across most high-profile web properties, including Yahoo Homepage, Yahoo Search, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Sports, and more. Meanwhile, Amazon states that it has applied the fix to the majority of its services as well. You can read Amazon's statement on the matter here.

At this point, it's unclear how much damage has been done by Heartbleed. In the meantime, here's a list of sites which have reportedly been affected.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends.