Update Linux Now As 9-Year-Old Root Hack Confirmed, CISA Warns Users
Update Linux Now As 9-Year-Old Root Hack Confirmed, CISA Warns Users
https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/linux-now-9-old-root-122846777.html
Publish Date: 2026-05-03 08:28:00
Source Domain: malaysia.news.yahoo.com
With more than 27 million active users and powering 75% of all web-facing servers, it’s surprising that we don’t hear more about Linux security issues. Which isn’t to say they don’t occur, but media headlines tend to focus more on Windows users than on Linux users. However, when a nine-year-old security vulnerability that can grant an attacker root access in just 732 bytes of code is confirmed, impacting “every major Linux distribution,” according to the researchers who uncovered it, you’d better start paying attention. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency has very quickly added the vulnerability, known colloquially as Copy Fail, to its known exploited vulnerabilities catalog within just 24 hours of the official disclosure. Here’s what you need to know, and more importantly, what you need to do as a matter of some urgency.
MORE FROM FORBESMeta Discloses 2 WhatsApp Vulnerabilities In New Security AdvisoryBy Davey Winder
Linux Copy Fail Vulnerability—What You Need To Know About CVE-2026-31431
CISA, which refers to itself as being America’s Cyber Defense Agency, didn’t hang around to add the Copy Fail vulnerability to its KEV database of vulnerabilities that are known to have been exploited. Indeed, the bug, more formally having a Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures designation of CVE-2026-31431, was added after just a day. This in itself is unusual, and while CISA has not shared details of the exploitation of the Copy Fail vulnerability, you can take it as read that it would not have been added to the KEV Catalog otherwise. CISA has only stated that the decision was made “based on evidence of active exploitation.” CISA went on to warn that “this type of vulnerability is a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors,” and as such strongly urged all users to “reduce their exposure to cyberattacks by prioritizing timely remediation.”
So, what do we know about Copy Fail? Security researchers from Theori, who discovered…
