The Web Dev Notes Blog Presents:

Shellshock: A Bigger Threat than Heartbleed?

Article Continues Below

Time to update those Linux servers again. A newly-discovered Linux flaw may be more pervasive, and more dangerous, than last spring’s Heartbleed.

A newly discovered security bug in a widely used piece of Linux software, known as “Bash,” could pose a bigger threat to computer users than the “Heartbleed” bug that surfaced in April, cyber experts warned on Wednesday.

Hackers can exploit a bug in Bash to take complete control of a targeted system, security experts said. The “Heartbleed” bug allowed hackers to spy on computers, but not take control of them.

“Bash” Software Bug May Pose Bigger Threat Than “Heartbleed”, Re/code

This new vulnerability, being called Shellshock, has been found in use on public servers, meaning the threat is not theoretical. A patch has been released, but according to Ars Technica, it’s unfortunately incomplete.

Web Dev Notes Proxy © 2026 | Powered by Cloudflare Worker

2 Reader Comments

  1. Web Dev Notes Proxy © 2026 | Powered by Cloudflare Worker

    shit

  2. Web Dev Notes Proxy © 2026 | Powered by Cloudflare Worker

    Fortunately, Debian wasn’t affected so hard by this bug, since it only uses bash for interactive sessions, and uses dash for it’s /bin/sh.

Got something to say?

We have turned off comments, but you can see what folks had to say before we did so.

More from ALA

Designed for a Dead Language

Every language app in your pocket inherited a teaching method built for Latin. Understanding why that happened is a more useful design lesson than anything the apps themselves can teach you.
Web Dev Notes Proxy © 2026 | Powered by Cloudflare Worker

Good designers, bad websites: a proposal

Designers are good people. Some designs exclude people anyway. Alan Dalton offers a practical fix: accessibility personas that help you recognize problems while you're designing, not after. Homework included.
Web Dev Notes Proxy © 2026 | Powered by Cloudflare Worker

Design for Amiability: Lessons from Vienna

Computing was born in a Viennese café. Between 1928 and 1934, while Hitler plotted and Europe crumbled, a motley crew of mathematicians, philosophers, architects, and economists gathered weekly to puzzle out the limits of reason—and invented Computer Science in the process. What made their collaboration possible wasn't just brilliance (though they had plenty). It was amiability: the careful design of a social space where difficult people could disagree without destroying each other. Longtime Web Dev Notes contributing author Mark Bernstein mines this forgotten history for lessons that might just save today's embattled web from its worst impulses. Spoiler: it involves better coffee service and the looming threat of public humiliation.
Web Dev Notes Proxy © 2026 | Powered by Cloudflare Worker

Design Dialects: Breaking the Rules, Not the System

Design systems aren't component libraries—they’re living languages. Rigid adherence to visual rules creates brittle systems that break under contextual pressure. Fluent systems bend without breaking.
Web Dev Notes Proxy © 2026 | Powered by Cloudflare Worker

Discover more from Web Dev Notes

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading