Huawei Tops Intel as Top Linux Kernel Contributor for 5.10 • Hacker News Board

Re: Huawei Tops Intel as Top Linux Kernel Contributor for 5.10

#31

Post by dvfjsdhgfv » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:04 PM UTC

harikb wrote: post #9

infocollector wrote: post #2

How is security taken care of when contributions are being done by Huawei (backdoors in 41k lines of sourcode?)? But I am guessing there is no real fight between open source software and state actors - perhaps someone who knows more about the security of the kernel can comment.

If a state actor really wants to do it and someone could get it past reviews, I am sure they could bribe any contributor from any country (including US). Why single out China? We never raised concerns with Russian contributors.

It's not even necessary to mention China and Russia, the NSA is equally interested in placing a backdoor in the Linux kernel. People were paranoid about it already 20 years ago [0], but according to Linus' father, NSA actually tried to pull it off [1].

[0] https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2013/10/09/the-linux-backdoor-...

[1] https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/11/nsa-ask-linus-torvalds-i...

Re: Huawei Tops Intel as Top Linux Kernel Contributor for 5.10

#32

Post by absolutelyrad » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:04 PM UTC

rscho wrote: post #12

absolutelyrad wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What can congress do? They're already blacklisted. The only thing left is to shoot your own foot. Maybe avoid that? I've seen nothing logical that came out of Trumps silly blacklisting except cashing out on the reputation the US had for pennies on the dollar. China is destined to be Europe and the US combined in term of tech. Time will tell if their culture causes problem for them. Smart high intelligence people + st…

China is destined by US and European politicians to take power, because those in power are totally corrupt. This has nothing to do with the instrinsic abilities of respective populations. Same goes for Israel. And you have a strange definition of ethics given the amount of IP piracy going on with the blessing of occidental politicians.

> And you have a strange definition of ethics given the amount of IP piracy going on with the blessing of occidental politicians.

What IP did Huawei steal? 5G?

Re: Huawei Tops Intel as Top Linux Kernel Contributor for 5.10

#33

Post by philliphaydon » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

curiousgal wrote: post #16

secfirstmd wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh you may want to read up about the NSA history of backdoors.

Honestly, people seem to forget that this happened. They lose their shit at the slightest mention of Huawei/China but don't even have an issue using software released by the NSA[0]. Unpopular opinion, but if I had to choose between China and the U.S. spying on me, I would pick the one who's less likely to have me extradited from whatever country I am in or ban me from flying. 0. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghidra

So you choose the US?

Re: Huawei Tops Intel as Top Linux Kernel Contributor for 5.10

#34

Post by netsharc » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:07 PM UTC

b0rsuk wrote: post #14

harikb wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a state actor really wants to do it and someone could get it past reviews, I am sure they could bribe any contributor from any country (including US). Why single out China? We never raised concerns with Russian contributors.

Maybe not single out China, but many people think China is particularly untrustworthy: they insist Chinese law is used outside China, and lecture people how they should refer to China in public; they operate concentration camps; the Chinese language has no word for *mutuality*, China benefits from free speech and access to institutions in the West but doesn't allow the same in China for journalists or businessmen; Ch…

Here's me being European and thinking, how many of these could be applied to USA as well. At least Xi Jinping is a properly ruthless politician, his thinner-skinned equivalent in the USA is just a fucking idiot running around screaming.

Yeah, yeah, "whataboutism". BTW, Chinese values, or Chinese government values? I'm sure the average Chinese would speak up if they knew they wouldn't end up in reeducation camp. Yeah I'll give you one thing, at least in the West it's still possible to speak up.

Meanwhile, in Washington DC at the moment, there are violence-ready Americans openly demanding democracy be ignored and to install their preferred fuckwit as ruler. Seems like they're just as brainwashed as a Chinese who's been fed CCP propaganda.

Re: Huawei Tops Intel as Top Linux Kernel Contributor for 5.10

#35

Post by dvfjsdhgfv » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

curiousgal wrote: post #16

secfirstmd wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh you may want to read up about the NSA history of backdoors.

Honestly, people seem to forget that this happened. They lose their shit at the slightest mention of Huawei/China but don't even have an issue using software released by the NSA[0]. Unpopular opinion, but if I had to choose between China and the U.S. spying on me, I would pick the one who's less likely to have me extradited from whatever country I am in or ban me from flying. 0. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghidra

> I would pick the one who's less likely to have me extradited from whatever country I am in or ban me from flying.

Frankly, I despise what the American government did to Assange and Manning. However, you can't even remotely compare their fate to what is happening every day to hundreds and thousands of people in different parts of China like Tibet. You have no chance of escaping, no chance of trial not to mention any appeal, your life can be destroyed in an instant. Several people in Tibet each year prefer to self-immolate than live under the terrible conditions imposed by the Chinese government.

Re: Huawei Tops Intel as Top Linux Kernel Contributor for 5.10

#36

Post by haukem » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:15 PM UTC

infocollector wrote: post #2

How is security taken care of when contributions are being done by Huawei (backdoors in 41k lines of sourcode?)? But I am guessing there is no real fight between open source software and state actors - perhaps someone who knows more about the security of the kernel can comment.

Normally the identity of contributors is not really checked when you want to contribute to an open source project. A valid email address and a name is sufficient to contribute to the Linux kernel.

All changes to The Linux kernel are getting publicly reviewed, so the hard thing is passing this technical review if you want to introduce a backdoor. If people know you, based on previous contributions, the review could be less hard, so it could make sense to build up a reputation before. In the Linux kernel not the company builds up the reputation, but the individual engineer who contributes. If this is a Huawei hardware it could be easier for an engineer with a Huawei mail address to get changes integrated, because people assume he known the driver and hardware well and people trust claims like, "this can not happen because the closed source firmware takes care of this".

If the Chinese intelligence agency wants to integrate a backdoor into mainline Linux it would be easier to just build up some own fake identities and use them. It probably would be easier to just analyze the Linux kernel and use bugs introduced by other people.

The NSA also contributed to the Linux kernel, look for contributes from a nsa.gov mail address.

Re: Huawei Tops Intel as Top Linux Kernel Contributor for 5.10

#37

Post by DiogenesKynikos » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

b0rsuk wrote: post #14

harikb wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a state actor really wants to do it and someone could get it past reviews, I am sure they could bribe any contributor from any country (including US). Why single out China? We never raised concerns with Russian contributors.

Maybe not single out China, but many people think China is particularly untrustworthy: they insist Chinese law is used outside China, and lecture people how they should refer to China in public; they operate concentration camps; the Chinese language has no word for *mutuality*, China benefits from free speech and access to institutions in the West but doesn't allow the same in China for journalists or businessmen; Ch…

> they insist Chinese law is used outside China

They're touchy about people recognizing what they view as separatist movements, but that's relatively minor compared to, say, the United States forcing its sanctions policy on the rest of the world. Everyone around the world is afraid of doing business with Cuba, Iran, Huawei, and other targets of US sanctions, because the US aggressively applies secondary sanctions. The US is even sanctioning Germany, its own ally, in order to try to force Germany to back out of a pipeline deal with Russia.

> the Chinese language has no word for mutuality

There are many ways to say "win-win" in Chinese, and if you ever listen to Chinese diplomats, they say that phrase incessantly.

> China doesn't even formally frown at corruption;

One of Xi Jinping's most highly publicized policies (inside China) is his anti-corruption campaign. This is practically his signature policy. You can argue the policy isn't in effective or isn't sincere, but to say that corruption isn't formally frowned upon us just wrong.

> WHO scientists investigating covid19 recently not permitted into China;

China hasn't processed their visas quickly. I'd wait a bit before passing judgment.

Re: Huawei Tops Intel as Top Linux Kernel Contributor for 5.10

#38

Post by mainstreemm » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #37

b0rsuk wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not single out China, but many people think China is particularly untrustworthy: they insist Chinese law is used outside China, and lecture people how they should refer to China in public; they operate concentration camps; the Chinese language has no word for *mutuality*, China benefits from free speech and access to institutions in the West but doesn't allow the same in China for journalists or businessmen; Ch…

> they insist Chinese law is used outside China They're touchy about people recognizing what they view as separatist movements, but that's relatively minor compared to, say, the United States forcing its sanctions policy on the rest of the world. Everyone around the world is afraid of doing business with Cuba, Iran, Huawei, and other targets of US sanctions, because the US aggressively applies secondary sanctions. Th…

>One of Xi Jinping's most highly publicized policies (inside China) is his anti-corruption campaign. This is practically his signature policy. You can argue the policy isn't in effective or isn't sincere, but to say that corruption isn't formally frowned upon us just wrong.

No, sorry, saying that it isn't sincere IS the same as saying corruption isn't formally frowned upon. And "anti-corruption" is the euphemism used by many authoritarian regimes to remove political opponents, which I'm sure is what is really happening under Dictator Pooh-Bear.

Re: Huawei Tops Intel as Top Linux Kernel Contributor for 5.10

#39

Post by b0rsuk » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #37

b0rsuk wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not single out China, but many people think China is particularly untrustworthy: they insist Chinese law is used outside China, and lecture people how they should refer to China in public; they operate concentration camps; the Chinese language has no word for *mutuality*, China benefits from free speech and access to institutions in the West but doesn't allow the same in China for journalists or businessmen; Ch…

> they insist Chinese law is used outside China They're touchy about people recognizing what they view as separatist movements, but that's relatively minor compared to, say, the United States forcing its sanctions policy on the rest of the world. Everyone around the world is afraid of doing business with Cuba, Iran, Huawei, and other targets of US sanctions, because the US aggressively applies secondary sanctions. Th…

Ever heard that Taiwan is doing a stellar job holding off coronavirus? No, because China presses WHO into not mentioning Taiwan. We could learn a lot from Taiwan. China doesn't just boycott Taiwan, it makes others act as if the country doesn't exist.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/taiwan

Re: Huawei Tops Intel as Top Linux Kernel Contributor for 5.10

#40

Post by whomst » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #4

Not surprising after I saw how many R&D offices Huawei has in Europe. They basically placed their offices right across their competitors like Ericsson, Nokia, Imagination, etc. to the point that in every European Tech hub you will find a Huawei office.

Yea Huawei has a location right outside NVIDIA in Santa Clara that was hit with a DOJ investigation after they gave out bonuses based on stealing IP and other nonsense.