NASA has confirmed that despite the global problems concerning the Log4j vulnerability, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter is safe from hackers millions of miles away.
The airplane carrying US Vice President Mike Pence arrives at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 27, 2020. - Pence and US President Donald travelled to Florida to see the historic first manned launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft, the first to launch from Cape Canaveral since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011.
The agency had to make this statement after rumors surfaced that Ingenuity could carry the now infamous Log4j exploit, which NASA denies having ever used on the helicopter in the first place. According to Gizmodo, Apache (the makers of Log4j) allegedly tweeted earlier in the year that the Martian chopper is using their tool.
This claim, however, was eventually refuted when Apache themselves made the correction. As per an article on Futurism, they say they were "misinformed" about the facts.
Rumors that the Ingenuity helicopter was using Log4j apparently surfaced during its 17th flight, which proved to both be problematic and successful.
While the chopper did stay aloft in the paper-thin Martian atmosphere for over 30 minutes (a new record for the spacecraft), it also "temporarily disappeared" from the agency's monitors due to an apparent network issue.
According to an official NASA press release, Ingenuity experienced an unexpected data cut-off during flight as it slowly finished up its mission. Then when rumors that the chopper was using Log4j surfaced, some people were worried that hackers on Earth might have already taken control.
The agency was quick to quell these rumors, saying that they "take cybersecurity very seriously." They didn't share how seriously they actually take the new cyber threat, but did state that their refusal to discuss specifics is part of NASA's steps to ensure they are safe from said threat-or any others.
Log4j has been hogging the headlines recently, shortly after its first discovery in "Minecraft" servers. Various security agencies have revealed that over 840,000 attacks have occurred within three days of the vulnerability's discovery.
Read Also: Log4j Security Patch Meant to Fix it Also Carries a Critical Vulnerability
What In The World Is Log4j?
For the uninitiated, the world is in the throes of a new pandemic-a digital one, perpetrated by hackers using an exploit in a program called Log4j. Experts say it is bad enough to impact all of the internet for years to come, and there are several reasons why.
In an article by CNN, the Department of Homeland Security considers the exploit as one of the most serious flaws they've ever seen. Jen Easterly, who serves as the head of the department's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), also says that a "growing set" of cybercriminals is actively exploiting the vulnerability at this moment.
A participant sits with a laptop computer as he attends the annual Chaos Communication Congress of the Chaos Computer Club at the Berlin Congress Center on December 28, 2010 in Berlin, Germany. The Chaos Computer Club is Europe's biggest network of computer hackers and its annual congress draws up to 3,000 participants.
A massive number of services and internet infrastructure are at the mercy of the exploit, including Apple's cloud computing service and "Minecraft" servers. The problem is allegedly also bad enough that it could take months-or even years-to fully solve, according to cybersecurity experts.
NASA's Ingenuity Chopper Is A-Ok
As of this writing, Ingenuity seems to be perfectly fine. Recently, the chopper just completed its 18th flight on the Red Planet. According to Space.com, it just added 124 seconds to its overall flight time on the planet, while also covering 754 feet of ground during its latest flight.
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Written by RJ Pierce
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