We will be cruising at 35,000 feet and failing to update our Apache HTTP Server
Bork!Bork!Bork! Bork can happen to the best of us, but flashing one's undercarriage at the boss of a compliance company is less than ideal, particularly at 35,000 feet in the air.
Qualys CEO Sumedh Thakar snapped a pair of whoopsies that popped up on the screen of his in-flight entertainment (IFE) system earlier this year: one is a typical web server fail. The other suggests MySQL connection difficulties.
Aircraft IFE systems are not connected directly to the airplane's avionics, which is handy, considering that Thakar's screen showed a decidedly ancient version of Apache in use. In this case, version 2.0.42.
It has been almost 13 years since security support for version 2.0 of the Apache HTTP Server ended. The final release was in July 2013, by which time the team had moved on to bigger and better things. The IFE, however, has not. In fact, version 2.0.42 first appeared in September 2002.
To put that in context, Windows XP had been released just the year before, and movie-goers were being delighted by Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Apple's iPhone had yet to trouble shoppers, although its iPod had been on the shelves for almost a year. Indeed, it was the first BlackBerry smartphone (the 5810) that was the phone to have for the irritating professional.
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Time has moved on. BlackBerry is no more, having been thoroughly stomped on by, among other things, Apple's iPhone, and the rolling hills of the Windows XP default desktop are more likely to trigger waves of nostalgia than anything else. However, in the never-updated world of the IFE, 2002 lives on.
And then there are those MySQL connection problems, which hint that this might be a Thales system. The company, after all, declares that its IFE experience makes for "a journey filled with unique experiences."
We're not sure if running a long-obsolete version of Apache HTTP Server and filling a screen with connection errors is quite the unique experience the passenger has in mind. However, considering Airbus's recent brush with avionic borkage, perhaps replacing the in-flight movies with a MySQL horror show or Apache thriller isn't such a bad thing after all. ®