So, we built a second one. That one went boom, fell down, then sank into the swamp.

But the third stage stayed up. And that's what you'll have lad, the strongest launch platform in these isles.

Print your password in Barcode3of9 font and tattoo that on your hand (or stick the printout in your wallet if there's a password change policy) When you want to "log in" to the scanner, just blip, and you're in.

Bash is still executed even with the multi-argument call to system.

The file /usr/bin/xzgrep is a shell script (note the #!/usr/bin/bash as the first line of the file). It inherits the CGI environment variables from its parent process, in this case the Perl interpreter. And since some of those CGI environment variables are controlled by the attacker (such as the Referrer: and Cookie: headers) the arbitrary code is executed.

And Bash is even executed when you open(INFILE, "/usr/bin/xzgrep error /var/log/my.log|","r") -- because the thing you're running isn't an ELF executable, it's a #!/usr/bin/bash text file.

Yes, there are other ways to do this (call xz directly without the xzgrep wrapper, use IO::Compress::xz, etc).

# run under mod_perl
print "Content-Type: text/plain\n\n";
system("/usr/bin/xzgrep error /var/log/my.log");

Can you see how this prefectly secure quick CGI to find errors in your log file would result in a system compromise?

Except for the system "utilities" that are actually bash scripts, such as /usr/bin/xzgrep. These are vulnerable to inheriting malicious environment variables from the parent processes even if the overlying process is not a shell script.

The other reasonable vector is the use of environment variables set by your dhcp client before running /etc/sysconfig/if-up.d/* based on whatever is contained in the first DHCPOFFER packet it receives.

In addition, ANY CGI that calls out to the system may call something that is actually a bash script even if it doesn't look like one.

For example, xzgrep on my Ubuntu system is a bash script, so this is vulnerable:
#!/usr/bin/perl
print("Content-type: text/plain\n\n");
system("xzgrep info /var/log/mylog.xz");

You left out the most important 4th point:

- Ergo, the universe does not exist.

Maybe try something with a little less scientific rigor... How about COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey

No, the tax is on engineering results. It would laundered through the NIH for funding the basic research that NIH would fund now if congress would give it the money it has in the past.

I heard this piece on NPR yesterday, and the thing that kept running through my mind is how the pharmaceutical industry is extorting huge profits based on fundamental research-- with much of that happening under NIH grants. Why not set a tax rate on drug patent royalties and use that to fund the NIH?

You have a multi-billion-dollar-sales patented drug? Chip in 0.5% of the revenue to fund NIH grants. Or make your own equivalent grants to truly independant researchers.

Enter into a licensing deal on a drug patent? Chip in 0.5% of the revenue to fund grants.

If the implanted device is running an IPv6-only stack, nobody will be able to talk to it for years and years. I don't expect to see broad rollout of pure IPv6 in my lifetime.

To heck with that, splice that gene into a retrovirus, and let me caffeinate every cell in my body!

You're right, officer, Clippy should not have been driving.

Now, what to do when my Explorer crashes...

Click on the Start button, go to "All Programs", then go to "Brakes", right-click on the "Apply Brakes" button, and choose "Run as Administrator". After the 15-second splash screen (now with Ads by Bing), choose "Decelerate Safely".

Please report to level D-10 for reassignment as reactor shielding. The computer is your friend.

Buses? Nitpicking, I know, but that particular abuse of the language makes me cringe, it really does, because it is so bizarrely and emphatically wrong on far too many levels.

The correct plural of bus is bi. (Unless you're talking about the London double-decker variety, in which case it's bii.)