WiredTree Warns Of The Dangers Of Unpatched BIND DNS Servers

Chicago, IL (PRWEB)August 26, 2015 - WiredTree, an experienced provider of managed server hosting, has warned server administrators of the dangers of unpatched BIND DNS servers in the wake of recent revelations by researcher Jonathan Foote that many versions of BIND are vulnerable to a denial of service attack.

BIND versions from 9.1.0 to 9.8.x, 9.9.0 to 9.9.7-P1, and 9.10.0 to 9.10.2-P2 are vulnerable to the attack, in which a specially crafted packet can cause DNS servers to exit.

The BIND DNS server has been a crucial part of the Internet for decades. There are hundreds of thousands of active BIND servers, which are responsible for converting human-readable URLs into IP addresses. DNS is essential to the functioning of the Internet, and a vital part of the world's communications systems. The vulnerability has the potential to allow an attacker with even moderate technical ability to cause thousands of DNS servers to shut down.

A patch has been released which removes the vulnerability, but many DNS servers are not actively managed and remain vulnerable.

“When news of this vulnerability was released, our team of server administrators worked with our clients to make sure that all of our managed servers were patched,” says Zac Cogswell, President of WiredTree. “Given the importance of BIND, an attack that leverages this vulnerability could have a devastating impact on the Internet. We think the vulnerability should be publicized as widely as possible so that owners of vulnerable servers can apply the necessary patches.”

Further information about the vulnerability and details on how to patch are available from the ISC website. Most BIND users should update with their operating system's package manager.

WiredTree's fully managed hosting services include security updates and ServerShield server hardening as standard. The company's hosting experts constantly monitor security information outlets for news of vulnerabilities and proactively apply patches, ensuring that WiredTree's clients are safe from attack.

About WiredTree

WiredTree specializes in delivering managed hosting experience that places the client in complete command; covering virtual, hybrid, and dedicated web hosting. As champions of customer care, it's no wonder that more than 5,000 clients enjoy WiredTree's free hardware level-ups and a <15 minute average ticket response time. All of this is built on top of only the highest-performing technologies, including LiteSpeed web server, MariaDB, memcached, SSD-driven hardware, and an in-house management system called Grove. To learn more about what WiredTree can do for your site, visit http://www.wiredtree.com.