While Red Hat Linux 5.0 and certain other flavors of Unix are apparently vulnerable to attack through the internet message access protocol (IMAP), the media response to the news seems to have been blown a little out of proportion. MSNBC reported that hackers were exploiting a Linux mail worm, when in fact the problem is with IMAP, not Linux itself, and is not a worm. These misrepresentations probably have nothing to do with the fact that MSNBC is part-owned by Microsoft Corp, whose products are not affected by the vulnerability. Even so, the story is hardly news. The Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University first identified the problem on July 20. Red Hat, Caldera, Sun, IBM and SCO have since posted software fixes and checksums. The only network administrators at risk are those who have not yet installed a patch.
