A remote vulnerability in the OpenSSL library was disclosed yesterday. A missing bounds check in the Heartbeat Extension implementation can trigger a buffer over-read leading to the loss of sensitive data, including the disclosure of the private key.

The Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet to read the memory of the systems protected by the vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software. This compromises the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content. This allows attackers to eavesdrop on communications, steal data directly from the services and users and to impersonate services and users.

More information:

• http://heartbleed.com/
• http://www.openssl.org/news/vulnerabilities.html
• http://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20140407.txt
• http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2014-0160

Wired has an interesting article about a new company, Goldiebox , who is making science and engineering toys targeted to young girls . Apparently, this new direction in play-education was not supported by the conventional toy industry, but through crowd-funding Goldiebox was able to break into the mass market and is going like gang-busters. Interesting quote from the CEO: "A lot of the men in the toy industry have daughters, and many of them are tired of what they have to offer their daughters, too."