Rackspace Failed to Upgrade Software with Critical Vulnerability for 5 Months

Rackspace is the latest in a string of recent hosting provider caused hackings of client websites. Unfortunately some hosting providers continue to not take the basic steps to keep their customers secure from hack at the hosting provider level. One of the most basic security steps is keeping software updated, which Rackspace has failed to do so with at least one major software component. On January 27, phpMyAdmin, a widely used MySql database administration tool, released a security advisory warning of “critical” vulnerability in version of 2.11.x prior to version 2.11.10. The secure version of phpMyAdmin had been released month prior to the security advisorie’s release. Rackspace finally upgraded their installation of  phpMyAdmin running on their Rackspace Cloud service on June 13 and that was only after “after customer reports brought” it to their attention. Up until then, they had not updated phpMyAdmin since version 2.11.3 was released, which was back in December of 2007.  Rackspace claims that they have “reviewed and adjusted our procedures so that going forward we will do better to stay up to date with the latest security releases of phpMyAdmin”.

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