The unfolding of the Equifax breach shows that the attack started around two months after the vulnerability was disclosed and the patch was made available by Apache. That means the vulnerability could have been eliminated with a patch long before the attack.

The real problem is that it takes enterprises much longer to mitigate vulnerabilities than it takes hackers to start exploiting them. This is not an isolated case. Just remember the consequences of the WannaCry attacks back in May 2017. These examples show that we continue to leave a wide-open window of opportunity for hackers.

Open source components like Apache Struts are widely adopted by developers of commercial and in-house applications. This makes them a popular target for hackers. Organizations that aren't aware of the components they're using or don't track software vulnerabilities, put themselves and their customers at risk.

Get the Facts on Apache Struts 2

The Equifax Breach
Equifax, one of the 3 major credit bureaus in the US, recently announced they were targets of a data breach that potentially exposed private information of 143 million customers. The breach was caused by the exploitation of a vulnerability (CVE-2017-5638) in Apache Struts 2.

Apache Struts 2
Apache Struts is a widely used open source component - a framework for Web servers. It's used by companies in commercial and in-house systems to take in and serve up data.

The Vulnerability
CVE-2017-5638
Product: Apache Struts 2

Secunia Research at Revenera
Secunia Advisory: SA75730
Secunia Criticality Rating: Highly Critical (4 out of 5)
Description: A vulnerability has been reported in Apache Struts, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a vulnerable system.
Solution: Update to version 2.3.32 or 2.5.10.1.

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