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Andres Freund and the xz backdoor

nytimes.com

11–20 of 28 posts

Re: Andres Freund and the xz backdoor

#11
> In the cybersecurity world, a database engineer inadvertently finding a backdoor in a core Linux feature is a little like a bakery worker who smells a freshly baked loaf of bread, senses something is off and correctly deduces that someone has tampered with the entire global yeast supply.

These kind of analogies are always a bit of an eye roll for me but I’ll grant a few points for creativity here

Re: Andres Freund and the xz backdoor

#12
post #5

In an otherwise well written and accessible article, I found the naming of example nations gratuitous: > some researchers believe only a nation with formidable hacking chops, such as Russia or China, could have attempted it. … or the US, UK, Israel, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, DPRK, Japan, etc, and the security offence companies that work as a supply chain for such nations in provision of embedded exploits. I…

>It’s based on very weak logic, but perhaps “Jia Tan” rules out China.

The Stasi sometimes used real names for cover names as well so you could draw no conclusions at all from a fake identity, not even by process of elimination. At the end of the day I don't think you can infer anything from the names or geolocations involved.

Re: Andres Freund and the xz backdoor

#13
With even the NYT on board it should be clear to everyone now that the whole xz thing must be a plot to have that Andres Freund person introduced into government and security circles where he then can finally fulfill that heinous plot. Classic.

Ahh, the voices...

Re: Andres Freund and the xz backdoor

#16

> (The New York Times has sued Microsoft and its partner OpenAI on claims of copyright infringement involving artificial intelligence systems that generate text.) It's strange to see this included randomly in the middle of the article.

It's run-of-the-mill disclosure.

Re: Andres Freund and the xz backdoor

#17
post #3

"Engineers have been circulating an old, famous-among-programmers web comic about how all modern digital infrastructure rests on a project maintained by some random guy in Nebraska. (In their telling, Mr. Freund is the random guy from Nebraska.)" No, it's Lasse Collin the _maintainer_ of xz..

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Re: Andres Freund and the xz backdoor

#18
post #5

In an otherwise well written and accessible article, I found the naming of example nations gratuitous: > some researchers believe only a nation with formidable hacking chops, such as Russia or China, could have attempted it. … or the US, UK, Israel, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, DPRK, Japan, etc, and the security offence companies that work as a supply chain for such nations in provision of embedded exploits. I…

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Re: Andres Freund and the xz backdoor

#19

> (The New York Times has sued Microsoft and its partner OpenAI on claims of copyright infringement involving artificial intelligence systems that generate text.) It's strange to see this included randomly in the middle of the article.

Conflict of interest disclaimer. It's pretty standard in journalism.
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