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A bug in software used by millions of web servers could have exposed anyone visiting sites they hosted to spying and eavesdropping, say researchers.

The bug is in a software library used in servers, operating systems and email and instant messaging systems.

Called OpenSSL the software is supposed to protect sensitive data as it travels back and forth.

It is not clear how widespread exploitation of the bug has been because attacks leave no trace.

"If you need strong anonymity or privacy on the internet, you might want to stay away from the internet entirely for the next few days while things settle," said a blog entry about the bug, external published by the Tor Project which produces software that helps people avoid scrutiny of their browsing habits.

A huge swathe of the web could be vulnerable because OpenSSL is used in the widely used Apache and Nginx server software. Statistics from net monitoring firm Netcraft suggest, external that about 500,000 of the web's secure servers are running versions of the vulnerable software.

"It's the biggest thing I've seen in security since the discovery of SQL injection," said Ken Munro, a security expert at Pen Test Partners. SQL injection is a way to extract information from the databases behind web sites and services using specially crafted queries.

Many firms were scrambling to apply patches to vulnerable programs and others had shut down services while fixes were being worked on, he said. Many were worried that with proof of concept code already being shared it would only be a matter of time before cyber thieves started exploiting the vulnerability.

Mojang, external, maker of the hugely popular Minecraft game, took all its services offline while Amazon, which it uses to host games, patched its systems.

The bug in OpenSSL was discovered by researchers working for Google and security firm Codenomicon.

In a blog entry about their findings the researchers said the "serious vulnerability" allowed anyone to read chunks of memory in servers supposedly protected with the flawed version of OpenSSL. Via this route, attackers could get at the secret keys used to scramble data as it passes between a server and its users.

"This allows attackers to eavesdrop [on] communications, steal data directly from the services and users and to impersonate services and users," wrote the team that discovered the vulnerability. They called it the "heartbleed" bug because it occurs in the heartbeat extension for OpenSSL.

The bug has been present in versions of OpenSSL that have been available for over two years. The latest version of OpenSSL released on 7 April is no longer vulnerable to the bug.

"Considering the long exposure, ease of exploitation and attacks leaving no trace this exposure should be taken seriously," wrote the researchers.

Installing an updated version of OpenSSL did not necessarily mean people were safe from attack, said the team. If attackers have already exploited it they could have stolen encryption keys, passwords or other credentials required to access a server, they said.

Full protection might require updating to the safer version of OpenSSL as well as getting new security certificates and generating new encryption keys. To help people check their systems some security researchers have produced tools that help people work out if they are running vulnerable versions of OpenSSL.