Don't believe the hype: That GRUB backspace bug wasn't a big deal

You can hack any Linux system just by pressing the backspace key 28 times! That's what some sites would have you believe after an unfortunate GRUB bug was recently made public. But this won't actually allow you to easily own any Linux system.

You should still update GRUB

Obviously, this isn't ideal. This bug will only impact some of the most secured systems. If you use GRUB's password feature to lock down your bootloader, you'll want to install the security updates your Linux distribution provides. The big Linux distributions have patched this problem, so it's simply a matter of installing those security patches, like you should be doing on a regular basis anyway. You don't even need to reboot. The next time your computer boots, it'll use the new version of GRUB without the bug and be secure.

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