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Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

notepad-plus-plus.org

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Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#111

Post by joejoe638 »

ryandrake wrote: post #44
LoganDark wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't help but feel there must some better venue for such messaging. When I see politics in software updates or documentation, nothing happens because I'm not looking to use the software for political activism. Maybe I tell my adblocker to remove the messaging, and carry on with my task. I can engage with politics in a social context, when political messaging isn't interrupting something else I'm doing; that's a be…

Similar comments also come up in the [now regular] "I don't want to see political articles on HN" threads, and I think the response is similar: Asking for "no politics" is itself a strong political view: One in support/service of whatever the current status quo is. Trying to set oneself apart from (or above) politics is itself political. If you're lucky enough to be one of the fortunate people on earth who are not un…

This is about being productive and weighing the overall value of things.

The politicisation of software is as harmful as requiring every research paper to be published with a political allegiance banner.

Software like most Sciences, Engineering, and, Trade is a much longer game for humanity than politics de jour.

It is easy to forget the extent of contributions from all sides of politics that has contributed to this trade, from Mohammed Algorithm to English, Russian, Chinese, and, everyone else to computing; but forgetting that and forging that for quick political hack points is a disservice to humanity.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#112

Post by nophunphil »

LoganDark wrote: post #33
icelancer wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, Notepad++ is known for political messaging in their updates. Taiwan, Ukraine, etc.

I can't help but feel there must some better venue for such messaging. When I see politics in software updates or documentation, nothing happens because I'm not looking to use the software for political activism. Maybe I tell my adblocker to remove the messaging, and carry on with my task. I can engage with politics in a social context, when political messaging isn't interrupting something else I'm doing; that's a be…

> I can't help but feel there must some better venue for such messaging.

I would argue that this has been an effective avenue for messaging/protest. You’re responding to it on this very board - that means you’re thinking about it.

Another angle: would such free protest be allowed if the developers of Notepad++ were based in China or Russia? I seriously doubt it.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#113

Post by davorak »

LoganDark wrote: post #91
davorak wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Otherwise it is just noise. This is absolutely no statement about the status quo, but just how my brain works. It's also not a statement against activism in general, just about my personal opinion of it in certain places. I considered the majority of the population to be affected by repeated messaging, messages in the background, or in other words availability bias. So the messaging be having the desired effect on…

It has an effect on me too: it makes me begin to extra-quickly ignore any messaging of that sort. I become so tired of it that it starts actively frustrating me to see. And I bother people to take it elsewhere. This is a behavioral issue on my part, but I'm still struggling to justify to myself that they couldn't be getting more out of it by putting it somewhere more appropriate.

> I become so tired of it that it starts actively frustrating me to see.

Something similar, significantly different though, happen to a friend. They started distrusting the incogni.com after seeing their advertisements over and over again. To them they saw/felt/reasoned that only an untrustworthy actor would be pushing the messaging so much and a trustworthy actor would rely more on word of mouth via their good product inspiring people to speak up about them. I had to point out that they probably saw much more of incogni's advertising due to their rate and type of media consumption and most people probably do not get that level of exposure. If incogni lowered their advertisements to hit them correctly it would not be nearly enough advertising to reach the average consumer.

I see the frustration at the repeated messaging to likely be a natural protective mechanism. Instinctively reject repeated messages is not necessarily a bad instinct since manipulative people will use repeated messaging to manipulate, but repeated message exposure does not only happen due to an attempt to manipulate.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#115

Post by pavon »

x_may wrote: post #105
tragiclos wrote: post #70

> Traffic from certain targeted users was selectively redirected to attacker-controlled served malicious update manifests. I'd be curious to know if there was any pattern as to which users were targeted, but the post doesn't go into any further detail except to say it was likely a Chinese state-sponsored group.

It might have been explicitly targeted, but they did say that there were older versions of Notepad ++ with ""insufficient update verification controls" so it might have just been there was only one subset of users actually susceptible to this.

No, the additional update verification was added after this attack was discovered. All Notepad++ installations were vulnerable during the time of the hijacking campaign.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#117

Post by handedness »

nophunphil wrote: post #112
LoganDark wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't help but feel there must some better venue for such messaging. When I see politics in software updates or documentation, nothing happens because I'm not looking to use the software for political activism. Maybe I tell my adblocker to remove the messaging, and carry on with my task. I can engage with politics in a social context, when political messaging isn't interrupting something else I'm doing; that's a be…

> I can't help but feel there must some better venue for such messaging. I would argue that this has been an effective avenue for messaging/protest. You’re responding to it on this very board - that means you’re thinking about it. Another angle: would such free protest be allowed if the developers of Notepad++ were based in China or Russia? I seriously doubt it.

Whether people talk about something isn't a measure of success, it's whether it changes public sentiment.

He who politicizes everything politicizes nothing.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#119

Post by pixl97 »

joejoe638 wrote: post #111
ryandrake wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar comments also come up in the [now regular] "I don't want to see political articles on HN" threads, and I think the response is similar: Asking for "no politics" is itself a strong political view: One in support/service of whatever the current status quo is. Trying to set oneself apart from (or above) politics is itself political. If you're lucky enough to be one of the fortunate people on earth who are not un…

This is about being productive and weighing the overall value of things. The politicisation of software is as harmful as requiring every research paper to be published with a political allegiance banner. Software like most Sciences, Engineering, and, Trade is a much longer game for humanity than politics de jour. It is easy to forget the extent of contributions from all sides of politics that has contributed to this…

>Software like most Sciences, Engineering, and Trade are much longer game for humanity than politics de jour.

Not really, software, like sciences and engineering must survive politics first. If humans start tossing around nukes like angry apes then those that survive may be scratching simple arithmetic with a charcoal stick on a cave wall.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#120

Post by gruez »

ryandrake wrote: post #44
LoganDark wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't help but feel there must some better venue for such messaging. When I see politics in software updates or documentation, nothing happens because I'm not looking to use the software for political activism. Maybe I tell my adblocker to remove the messaging, and carry on with my task. I can engage with politics in a social context, when political messaging isn't interrupting something else I'm doing; that's a be…

Similar comments also come up in the [now regular] "I don't want to see political articles on HN" threads, and I think the response is similar: Asking for "no politics" is itself a strong political view: One in support/service of whatever the current status quo is. Trying to set oneself apart from (or above) politics is itself political. If you're lucky enough to be one of the fortunate people on earth who are not un…

>Similar comments also come up in the [now regular] "I don't want to see political articles on HN" threads, and I think the response is similar: Asking for "no politics" is itself a strong political view: One in support/service of whatever the current status quo is.

Before I respond to your comment, allow me first to acknowledge the following injustices happening in the world:

* war in gaza

* war in ukraine

* civil war in sudan

* civil war in yemen

* civil war in myanmar

* ethnic violence in syria

* insurgent attacks in nigeria

* insurgent attacks in congo

* attacks on protesters in Iran

...

Wait, what's that? You don't want every comment to start with some sort of land acknowledgement-esque disclaimer of all injustices happening in the world? What are you, some sort of gaza war/ukraine war/sudanese civil war/ ... sympathizer? Tens, if not hundreds of millions have been affected by the event listed above, so at the very least you can spare a thought for them before discussing about some text editor getting compromised? You might argue acknowledging the war in gaza is beating a dead horse, but do you think the median HN reader has thought about the civil war in myanmar in the past month?

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