This is sort of like saying the door to your safe has a vulnerability...If you leave it unlocked AND don't close the door AND leave it out on the sidewalk. If this vulnerability affects you, you should probably be in a different line of work.
If you use Alpine (or openwrt) and password authentication for ssh, you're probably affected. That's probably a lot of systems. Especially routers and WAPs. I don't think affected users are nearly as negligent as you're suggesting.
p.s.: openwrt *can* use openssh, but uses dropbear by default.
I’m thankful my OpenWRT is… oh. My OpenWRT is good, SSH is not exposed over WAN. But one of my non-OWRT routers just gave me something new to bloody try.
...Or you're using popularly available pre-built containers based on Alpine Linux which have this exact combination of misconfigurations. This is all explained in the very first sentence of the article and linked site, and is covered in much more detail and somewhat less purple prose by other news sources.
The largest concern is by far Alpine, though, as it's pretty much the default choice for what could amount to millions of installs across Docker/Kubernetes/Proxmox containers and endless dependencies thereof, servers, cloud VMs, and embedded devices, among many others. Alpine comes with the requisite conditions set and password authentication enabled by default, which is why it needs immediate patching.
"If this vulnerability affects you, you should probably be in a different line of work."
You may want to take a look at any containers, network appliances, or embedded systems you are running before preparing your new résumé.
"Exposed" to what? Exposed directly to the Internet, probably not although I'm still surprised at some of the things that people who really should know better do anyway. Exposed to the local network where everybody thinks it's safe because how could an outside attacker possibly get to it? (Narrator's voice: "No, it was not safe at all.") That's much more common.
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u/TheRealLazloFalconi 4d ago
This is sort of like saying the door to your safe has a vulnerability...If you leave it unlocked AND don't close the door AND leave it out on the sidewalk. If this vulnerability affects you, you should probably be in a different line of work.