What Is Cloudbleed? Bug Led To Passwords, Private Info Leaking Online

Cloudflare, a service that provides security and performance optimization for more than 5.5 million websites, warned users on Thursday that it recently fixed a bug that exposed sensitive information including usernames and passwords. The problem may be fixed now, but the fallout will be ongoing. Thousands of sites have reportedly experienced data leaks due to the bug, which has resulted in private information being exposed and cached by search engines--preserving the information for potential bad actors to make use of. Sites and services like Uber, OKCupid, FitBit, Change.org and a number of other noteworthy companies have been affected by the bug--which reportedly had been active since Sept. 22, 2016. The issue--which has been dubbed "Cloudbleed" in reference to the 2014 Heartbleed bug that allowed hackers to exploit a vulnerability to steal encrypted information--was first caught by Google security researcher Tavis Ormandy.