Ignition Casino and other sites on the PaiWangLuo (Bodog) Network have resumed live activity after nearly two days of downtime that found customers expressing concerns despite reassurances from Ignition and other Bodog-related sites across social media. The unexpected downtime followed an apparent system freeze or crash on Thursday afternoon, North America time, and lasted until Saturday morning.
The yet to be detailed software problem involved an extensive "fix" which lasted throughout the two-day stretch. The software network involved all sites and gambling forms, including the popular grey-market Bovada sports betting site. Ignition offered its customers updates as frequently as every three hours on Twitter, though there was a certain sameness as message after message amounted to little more than "We're working on it.
Perhaps the most informative message was a Friday post that declared, "Regularly scheduled maintenance sucks when it goes wrong. We know we are still looking like at least 7-8 hours away from being back, but know your balances are completely secure while we fix this and we’ll update you again in three hours." The overall string of Twitter updates, though, left the live resumption of activity as an open question until Saturday's resolution:
The messages continued on. Later on Friday, the first Tweet with any explanatory content appeared:
Failed upgrade possibly linked to recent Apache Log4J vulnerability
While conspiracy-minded players' thoughts ran toward DDoS attacks or other similar exploits, such extortion-themed activity probably wasn't the cause for the downtime. Ignition's mention of an upgrade issue could tie it to an Apache software vulnerability discovered in late November that some analysts have rated a "10 out of 10" in terms of vulnerability. Patching the vulnerability has caused unexpected downtime on other sites earlier this month.
Such third-party software is incorporated into online platforms of many types, and Apache is believed to be installed and running on at least 175 million devices worldwide. Once it was discovered, the vulnerability was quickly exploited by online criminals and required an emergency fix across all Apache-using applications. The exploit itself takes several forms. One such method involves connecting with a targeted victim's device via chat. A simple chat command could transfer control of that device to the hacker who entered the code into the chat.
Whether the Apache issue or something unrelated caused the nearly two days of downtime for Ignition Casino and other Bodog/Bovada sites is unlikely to be fully revealed to the public. In any event, Ignition announced its return on Saturday, again via Twitter:
Featured image source: ignitioncasino.eu
