Worst Blog Ever

Hulk Bash

There was a recent shocking computer vulnerability discovered by security researches about a week ago that they're calling Shellshock. They believe that this vulnerability may have been around since the mid 90's or early naughts (I think). They call it shellshock because the vulnerability lies in a shell program called Bash.

Shell + shocking vulnerabilty = shellshock! Get it? Yeah, I laughed so hard, I almost peed my pants!

Anyway, the way the tech media is making it out, the internet will probably fall apart tomorrow as virtually all Linux systems have this bash program within its DNA, and more than 50 percent of the web servers in the world operate on Linux. Also, virtually all internet of things (smart meters, smart TVs, etc.) run on Linux. So, as you can see, this is clearly bigger than Y2K and Heartbleed put together. Except it really isn't.

Now, while not every web server will be patched in the immediate future, you can rest assured that the big players are working on fixes. Actually, many of them are already reporting that they have patched the vulnerability. But here's the cool thing: because Linux is an open source operating system, any changes to that operating system, regardless of which company/entity makes those changes, has to have that fix be implemented in the underlying Linux architecture. It's actually a bit more complicated than that, but the bottom line is, if any entity makes the operating system better, then that code is adopted into the underlying operating system.

Yes, but what about the internet of thing issue? Won't those devices be insecure? Do I need to unscrew all my smart light bulbs?

Yes. Yes, you do.

Not really. In order to keep all these things operating quickly, you need a really small operating system, and as such those versions of Linux (more than likely) used a different shell program, something that is much smaller, and wouldn't weigh down their operating systems.

Anyway, after hearing all the hype about this whole thing, I came up with the idea for this cartoon; kind of a play on words to the catch phrase of The Hulk: Hulk Smash!

So in short, this entire blog post is nothing more than an excuse to post a cartoon I drew.