Developers of an open web-hosting control panel ZPanel is now dealing with the consequences of neglecting problems of security panel. Use of unsafe method of encoding in ZPanel was repeatedly criticized, but developers reacted in a rude manner and did not take actions to improve security.
Earlier, one of the ZPanel project members Nigel Caldwell posted a message on the official forum stating that the panel is a safer product than the existing counterparts, and that users are more likely to be compromised through vulnerabilities in OS.
In response to this Dutch software developer Sven Slootweg published a message claiming there is a problem that affects the template system which was not fixed for 8 month. Discovered bug allowed execution of arbitrary PHP-code with ‘root’ rights. Slootweg also published data on the method of the vulnerability exploitation.
However, ZPanel developers refused to consider it being serious problem, saying that exploitation requires downloading the template, and this operation is available only to the user with administrator privileges. Despite the ban set by default, when enabling option of changing the interface, anyone can execute the code with ‘root’ privileges on the server.
When Slutveg continued to insist on ZPanel reconsidering its attitude to safety and fixing problems with the possibility of cross-site requests, Caldwell told him on the official forums in a very rude manner, calling Slutvega «f *cken little know it all».
Within hours after the offensive messages appeared, ZPanel’s website and accounts on the forum belonging to Caldwell and another developer Tom Gates, were hacked. At the same time, reportedly on behalf of Caldwell, next message was posted: “Hi. Recently, we realized we were not in a position to ensure the security of the code and decided to shut the project. Good-bye.”
