Drupal 6 Hits the End-of-Life Milestone

Drupal 6 has been around since 2008 and has been used by thousands of websites as a content management system (CMS). However, Naked Security reported that the version reached its end-of-life (EOL) mark and is now officially unsupported. No further security updates or patches will be supplied for the version 6 core or its modules as of Feb. 24, 2016.

The Implications

While WordPress is still the most popular CMS for websites, Drupal is the second. Figures show that about 1 in 10 of the sites on the Web that use it run version 6, according to Naked Security. Now that this version has reached the end of its supported life, those sites become targets for criminals. Like Windows XP, it will be unpatched and unsupported by the developers, becoming vulnerable to any exploits found in the future.

When Drupal version 8.0 was announced in 2013, the EOL date for version 6 was set. Even then, some wondered about this legacy situation and whether the version 6 sites that are out there — and are rather difficult to upgrade anyway due to significant amounts of custom code — would ever be maintained.

OSTraining noted that there are major differences in how version 6 and higher versions of the CMS operate. Even changing from version 6 to 7 is not as simple as an update; it’s more like a full migration.

Long-Term Outlook for Drupal Users

The program and its community found three vendors who have agreed to provide a form of long-term support, according to a Drupal announcement. The companies have agreed to post security patch notifications on a community page.

MyDropWizard is one of these vendors. It announced one-year support for older CMS versions for a sliding fee that depends on the complexity of the customer’s instance. Tag1 Consulting will also provide long-term support, but the pricing is at a fairly high level of about $2,000 a month.

Additionally, Acquia is asking interested parties to contact it for more information about security supports for the earlier CMS versions. These three companies will provide a form of support as long as they can be paid for their efforts, but they and others will help users migrate to the latest version of the CMS, Drupal 8.

The only true way out of the situation seems to be migrating away from version 6 to one of the newer, supported versions. That’s the best way for users to ensure they are staying ahead of threats and receiving the latest updates.

Larry Loeb

Principal, PBC Enterprises

When ransomware kills: Attacks on healthcare facilities

4 min read - As ransomware attacks continue to escalate, their toll is often measured in data loss and financial strain. But what about the loss of human life? Nowhere is the ransomware threat more acute than in the healthcare sector, where patients’ lives are literally on the line.Since 2015, there has been a staggering increase in ransomware attacks on healthcare facilities. And the impacts are severe: Diverted emergency services, delayed critical treatments and even fatalities. Meanwhile, the pledge some ransomware groups made during…

AI and cloud vulnerabilities aren’t the only threats facing CISOs today

6 min read - With cloud infrastructure and, more recently, artificial intelligence (AI) systems becoming prime targets for attackers, security leaders are laser-focused on defending these high-profile areas. They’re right to do so, too, as cyber criminals turn to new and emerging technologies to launch and scale ever more sophisticated attacks.However, this heightened attention to emerging threats makes it easy to overlook traditional attack vectors, such as human-driven social engineering and vulnerabilities in physical security.As adversaries exploit an ever-wider range of potential entry points…

4 trends in software supply chain security

4 min read - Some of the biggest and most infamous cyberattacks of the past decade were caused by a security breakdown in the software supply chain. SolarWinds was probably the most well-known, but it was not alone. Incidents against companies like Equifax and tools like MOVEit also wreaked havoc for organizations and customers whose sensitive information was compromised.Expect to see more software supply chain attacks moving forward. According to ReversingLabs' The State of Software Supply Chain Security 2024 study, attacks against the software…

Security Intelligence

{{title}}

{{title}}

{{title}}

Topics

The Implications

Long-Term Outlook for Drupal Users

More from

When ransomware kills: Attacks on healthcare facilities

AI and cloud vulnerabilities aren’t the only threats facing CISOs today

4 trends in software supply chain security

Topic updates