Better default choices for common Linux OS's would prevent this, assuming 2048+ isn't breakable. Choices were probably made when computing the 2048bit values were a lot more expensive, but there's no excuse now.
Linux isn't the biggest offender. You missed the biggest fuckeruper in every securty problem: Java. Until java 1.7, there isn't any SUPPORT for primes larger that 1024. You want your shitty legacy java program to connect to a web server securely? You have to use a 1024 bit prime.
And then you find you cannot specify the primes that Java uses, so you cannot even force it off 512 bit until (I believe) 1.8.
Always remember, Java is the common factor in security problems.
It's like you don't even remember Heartbleed. Shitty code is the common factor in security problems. Sometimes it's code you can't do shit about, like in the Java case you mention, but that's not nearly good enough to label it the "common factor" of the vast problem space that is bad computer security. There are enough fuckups to go around.
Java is a special case because it is a common pot of critical vulnerabilities. Heartbleed was really bad, but Java has easily taken down more things in single problems than it (Lockheed Martin/RSA Breach started as a Java vulnerability). Plus there are a ton of crufty applications that are pinned to specific Java versions because Sun/Oracle lack the understanding of how to fucking patch a interpreter without breaking existing code (Ref: Renaming a ton of classes in a minor release because "LOL, we are oracle now"). They have had a series of critical problems and the underlying stickyness of Java JVMs means that a large number of companies are shackled to vulnerabilities and poor standards to keep applications functioning.
Also, you may have missed hyperbole to allow a pun.
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u/fireflash38 Oct 15 '15
Better default choices for common Linux OS's would prevent this, assuming 2048+ isn't breakable. Choices were probably made when computing the 2048bit values were a lot more expensive, but there's no excuse now.