A newly identified security vulnerability known as POODLE primarily affects connections using SSL 3.0, which can be avoided by disabling the protocol in both clients and servers. In the context of Octopus Deploy, a tool for managing software deployments, the risk is mitigated by specifically using TLS 1.0 for secure communication between the Octopus server and Tentacle deployment agents, bypassing SSL 3.0 entirely. This approach has been in place since the release of an open-source project called Halibut in 2013, which laid the foundation for Octopus's communication stack. However, the Octopus web portal, running on IIS and HTTP.sys, could potentially be vulnerable if exposed over HTTPS unless SSL 3.0 is disabled via registry changes or Group Policy, as recommended by Microsoft.