There has been a critical vulnerability found in Bash which affects Linux distributions that use or have Bash installed.

More details about the issue can be found here: http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-6271

We would ask all our VPS clients to ensure you keep your systems up to date – naturally this is taken care of by us automatically if you have a management plan with us.

Some more info about the issue can be found on these pages:

https://securityblog.redhat.com/2014/09/24/bash-specially-crafted-environment-variables-code-injection-attack/

https://access.redhat.com/articles/1200223

To test if your version of Bash is vulnerable, run the following command:

$ env x='() { :;}; echo BAD' bash -c "test"

If the output of the above command looks as follows:

BAD
test

You are using a vulnerable version of Bash.

If you run the above example with the patched version of Bash, you should get an output verifying you are not vulnerable:

$ env x='() { :;}; echo BAD' bash -c "echo test"

bash: warning: x: ignoring function definition attemptbash: error importing function definition for `x'test

If you are running an unmanaged VPS with us, then please ensure you update bash via your distributions package manager or open a ticket with our support team for assistance.