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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

#231

Post by jajuuka »

cespare wrote: post #187
maxkfranz wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions. My opinion is that open source documentation is like polite dinner conversation: It’s not the proper place to discuss politics. If an author wishes to use their open source project as a platform to discuss politics, that’s the author’s prerogative. But then, as perhaps in this instance, it could be to the detriment of the project itself.

Skirt too short, in other words? I'm going to place the blame on the party committing the crimes, not the person exercising free expression.

This is a zero sum take. There are no winners, only the people you deem using free expression correctly. Would a developer who names releases like "Ukrainians are nazi's" or "Taiwan is China" be met with this same sympathy? Or would you brush them off as a mouthpiece for those governments? I'm thinking it's the latter. Free expression is rarely anything other than socially acceptable expression.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#232

Post by FormerBandmate »

LoganDark wrote: post #208
shiroiuma wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good point. What would people think if there was constant political discussion here about, for instance, South Sudan and things happening there now? I'm sure there's bad stuff going on there and it's unfortunately, but if we had constant references to and discussions about the internal politics of South Sudan, I think a lot of people would get annoyed about issues that don't affect them at all in their day-…

Do you think it's socially acceptable to ignore everything that doesn't affect you personally? Many activists would certainly have you think otherwise. As far as I can tell, fighting that habit is a huge goal of activism.

A huge chunk of activism is pointless and annoying. Especially when every cause is lumped together into Activism (TM) and the Omnicause.

I don’t agree with them and I don’t think they should be in my software, or dealing with anything they don’t understand (for instance crime, homeless people, geopolitics, or really anything outside of overpriced vegan coffee shops). All they really do is end up getting Fox News people to vote for fascists like Trump out of spite

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#233

Post by xeromal »

the_fall wrote: post #226
dabinat wrote: post #216

> With these changes and reinforcements, I believe the situation has been fully resolved. Fingers crossed. I get that this is a difficult situation for a small developer, but ending with this line did not fill me with confidence that the problem is actually resolved and make me trust their software on my system.

That's the most honest assessment you can expect from any small-scale developer. What do you expect them to say or do? Their adversary is presumably a national intelligence agency of a superpower . The odds may be better if you operate the way OpenSSH does: move slow, security first, architect everything to be very difficult to attack. But if you're building a text editor, it's not your mindset, and probably never wi…

Yup, the only way to combat this as a smalltime dev would be to turn off auto updates and make people build from source.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#234

Post by Nition »

hinkley wrote: post #193
edb_123 wrote: post #185

So, let me get this straight. If I've been lazy, postponed updates and I'm still on 8.5.8 (Oct 2023) - it turns out I'm actually...safer? Anyway, I hope the author can be a bit more specific about what actually has happened to those unlucky enough to have received these malicious updates. And perhaps a tool to e.g. do a checksum of all Notepad++ files, and compare them to the ones of a verified clean install of the u…

This reminds me of college, when some of my professors were still sorting out their curriculum and would give us homework assignments with bugs in it. I complained many times that they were enabling my innate procrastination by proving over and over again that starting the homework early meant you would get screwed. Every time I'd wait until the people in the forum started sounding optimistic before even looking at t…

Ah, I remember those days. One that wasn't an error exactly was an assignment that had a word limit of 2000 words or something. I'd written maybe 3000 words and spent quite some time cutting it down, getting it to just under the limit. Then someone else who also wrote too many words asked the professor if that was okay and they sent out an update to everyone saying it's fine to ignore the word limit.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#235

Post by tjjuckson »

vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #207
devkit1 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an American and I make a very conscious effort to appreciate social and political nuances. And I go out of my way to point out nuances to others who, in my opinion, oversimplify their statements. It could be argued that the expression of stereotyping Americans as lacking nuance, itself lacks nuance. I believe really most people are similar in that we have our biases, differences in context and experiences. We ca…

I think that the stereotype of Americans lacking nuance around political issue is valid. Obviously, like all stereotypes, it’s not 100% true but Americans seem to feel obliged to pick one side of an issue, most of the time aligned with the worth of their choice, and then to view everything that’s happening through that lens. Try to point out to a democrat that Trump is doing something right or to a Trump voter that B…

> to such an extreme in other countries I know like Germany

could you remind me what country is the afd based out of thnx

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#236

Post by ozim »

maxkfranz wrote: post #170
simlevesque wrote: post #3

Probably related to this: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/v869-about-taiwan/

Everyone is entitled to their opinions. My opinion is that open source documentation is like polite dinner conversation: It’s not the proper place to discuss politics. If an author wishes to use their open source project as a platform to discuss politics, that’s the author’s prerogative. But then, as perhaps in this instance, it could be to the detriment of the project itself.

Other take is … which is cool feature of OSS … you don’t have to use projects that do political statements.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#237

Post by FormerBandmate »

kvemkon wrote: post #129
nophunphil wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> would such free protest be allowed if the developers of Notepad++ were based in - US arguing for independence of any of the States for whatever reasons? - Spain for Catalonia? - France for Basque? and many more just in Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_separatist_move...

You can totally say Texas should be independent. A lot of Texans have.

You can’t be against the Ukraine war in Russia because Putin is an evil dictator

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#238

Post by locusofself »

I don't think "we" would have been impacted since this specifically targets the updates, but recently Microsoft pulled Notepad++ from the list of apps we can use on our production management laptops. Some people were annoyed and whining about this. That predated this announcement by a few weeks. Probably the right move by the security folks.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#239

Post by mmsc »

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…

If the political messages said "gas the Jews", "exterminate the Ukrainians and give Ukraine to Russia", and "Taiwan has and always will be a province of china", you probably wouldn't use notepad++.

Re: Notepad++ hijacked by state-sponsored actors

#240

Post by tjjuckson »

iamnothere wrote: post #148
nophunphil wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Typically when I see such messaging in an out of place venue it nudges me slightly against both the message and the venue pushing the message. This occurs regardless of whether I agree with the message. I feel the same way as when I see an ad: this does not belong here. I don’t think I am the only one who has this reaction. People who do this should consider if it’s actually helping their cause. If not it’s just feel…

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