Cpanel Boycott – Can you really trust your cpanel host?
Disclaimer : The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to me
by skraps
Published on 12-24-2011 03:35 PM
Cpanel went on for 2 years with a remote root exploit in exim 4.69(released: 12-27-2007 11:29 AM) that allowed attackers to gain complete control over the servers. Hosts that use cpanel, Hostgator.com and many others. Unlike qmail(qmail.org) that has a track record of zero security flaws. Along with tinydns that has had one security flaw but not a serious one. It only allowed attackers to crash the daemon then it needed to be restarted.
Why is this so serious? Imagine how many E-Commerce sites are built on top of that platform. If you run a cpanel server inside yhour network that has access to the outside world. You could now have crackers using that cpanel box as a base to compromise and attack other computers on the network from. The possiblitiy that a massive DDOS attack was on it’s way the 2012 of the internet? Your whole datacenter turns on you.
(“200,000 “web site hosting vendors”, all cPanel-based, yet uniquely labeled”)
(“Here’s where: more than 98% of these 200,000+ different web hosting brand names in the world will offer you exactly the same cPanel Control Panel and platform, labeled in a different way, with the same price tags!”)
Information taken from – www.resellerhostingclue.com
Any site in the past 3 years that has received your personal information , name , address, telephone, and credit card numbers has more than likely been compromised and “black hat hackers”(the evil doers) have your information at their disposal.
A lot of shared servers. Like hostgator.com , and many more here -
This is how easy it was for a attacker to gain complete control over these hosts.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnSgOGIxjaQ
Also cpanel prefers performance over security. None of these services include chkrootkit, rkhunter, obscure installs of tripwire. None of the services use chroot for the daemons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroot
10 other web hosting panel alternatives that are free
ISPConfig is a great alternative that is feature rich and even includes multiple server monitoring and virtual machine monitoring/control. This is put together by the people at howtoforge.com , the only thing they ask is if you can, buy a subcription for 6-USD to their site. Where they give the same support and quality tutorials to everyone for free anyways! That is nothing more genuine than that.
Basically every host I have talked to only say they patched their servers. None of them reinstalled the base then reinstalled cpanel. Knowing Hostgator there is no tripwire and most hosting companies would not take the time to ensure the safety of the data. Mainly because that would cost them money and resources. Moving the accounts, going through all the code of the websites looking for malware and web based shells. Last updates made to the most popular root kit checking software on the market. AVG also has a Linux virus scanner but I am unsure of its capabilities. The windows version of AVG is rock solid. ( http://free.avg.com )
To ensure integrity/safety of the data is by reinstalling the base and then cpanel or a alternative, finally moving the accounts back to the servers is the only solution. This is because chkrootkit and rkhunter only have been trained to find known root kits in common places. This does not include back doors implanted into obscure places. This does not include checking the kernel for mods that enable a attacker to compromise the host.
