Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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With 1000+ Linux distros, it seems like there'd be one with backdoors clandestinely created and distributed by the NSA. (self.showerthoughts)

submitted 2 days ago by no_effing_merlot to c/showerthoughts

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 2 days ago (5 children)

That would be too obvious and thus ineffective. In reality it is more likely that they have inserted bugs into various open source software covertly, like we saw with xz.

[–] Hugin 2 points 1 day ago

There was at least one attempt. Back before git the linux kernel was in 1 central repo. There was also a backup repo. It was compromised with a very clever backdoor.

The backdoor was caught but only because it didn't have a reference to the mainline repo.

if ((options == (__WCLONE|__WALL)) && (current->uid = 0)) retval = -EINVAL;

Note the user uid is being set (=) to root instead of being checked(==) for root.

The full story.

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2013/10/09/the-linux-backdoor-attempt-of-2003/

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