The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) sounds the alarm about a software vulnerability.
(Photo: Reuters)
Munich According to the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), a weak point in a software module that is widely used on many computers leads to an “extremely critical threat situation”. The authority therefore increased its existing cyber security warning for the Java library Log4j to red on Saturday. This is the highest category of the four-level BSI scale for cyber security warnings and is currently the only message at this level.
“At the moment it is not yet known in which products this library is used, which means that it is not yet possible to estimate at this point in time which products are affected by the vulnerability,” said the BSI. “If the manufacturers provide updates, these should be installed immediately,” recommended the office to the service providers.
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The assessment is based on the very widespread use of this software element and the associated effects on countless other products, announced the BSI. In addition, the vulnerability can be exploited without major difficulties. This would allow attackers to take over the affected system completely.
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There are already mass scans in Germany and around the world, as well as attempted and successful attacks. A security update for the Java library Log4j already exists. However, all products that use Log4j would also have to be adapted.
IT security firms and Java specialists worked to plug the vulnerability. The firewall specialist Cloudflare built a mechanism for its customers to block attacks. Experts warned that it is not just online systems that are at risk. A QR scanner or a contactless door lock could also be attacked if they used Java and Log4j, emphasized Cloudflare.
BSI President Arne Schönbohm and the former Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer had recently warned of an increasing risk from cyber attacks. Last year, according to the BSI, 144 million new malware variants were detected, which is an increase of 22 percent compared to the previous year.
More: Security vulnerability puts computers at risk all over the world