how the forget does this stuff not get checked and how the forget did it not get discovered until now
i fail to understand
By default, the root user on unix systems has
no password. Presumably this null value was improperly equated with the value of a null string. It's not exactly something that you'd think to check, either, since any people who are enough of a poweruser to know to look for this kind of stuff are probably enough of a poweruser to set their own root password so they can use it. The only way I could see this kind of thing getting caught is through proper code review or internal entry testing, and stuff gets missed in code reviews and pen tests all the time if it is not a known exploit.