NSA Asked Linus Torvalds To Install Backdoors Into GNU/Linux
falkvinge.netThe NSA has asked Linus Torvalds to inject covert backdoors into the free and open operating system GNU/Linux. This was revealed in this week's...
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Secret Key Cryptography by Frank Rubin
When was the last analysis of the linux kernel source code ?
Lol good year for the NSA
Jia Tan has entered the chat
The project contains binary blobs anyway so theoretically it wouldn’t be super hard
Ohh so it’s the NSA that my failed sudos are reported to!
Recent versions of sudo changed that message and now I’m sad 😢
Damn, I’m going to miss those messages one day on my Debian stable server.
Switch to doas so feds don’t get any more reports!
nah, we have run0 at home
Years ago there was a commit to the Linux kernal that strangly had no author. This got some attention of several of the developers.
Looking into the code that had to deal with network transmission. there was a section that if you tried to get network access in a unusual way had a check that was written something like this.
If (usr_permission = ROOT) … Instead of If (usr_permission == ROOT) …
The first giving the user root if invoked and the second checking to see if the user was root.
It’s widely thought this was the NSA or some other intelligence agency trying to backdoor lin Linux.
The other side of that coin is the NSA developing SELinux
This is because NSA has two roles: eavesdropping on foreign adversaries, and protecting our internal systems from adversaries. Under the first role, they might introduce an exploit known only to themselves. Under the second, they help protect US systems from exploits known to others.
And because of this it makes whatever they fuck with have unnecessary security issues.
Also though they are using it to straight up spy on you whether foreign or not. They got in “trouble” for it once and pinky swore not to do it again.
Fuck the NSA
Now they get the Brits and Aussies to do it and give them the reports.
fork the kernel and yeet it?
It was caught and never made it in the kernel.
Gud gud
Or it could of been any person or country. It was a nothing burger and is still a nothing burger
speaking in burger terms as any good american
Proud to be an American, at least I know I’m free.
Free to buy all the hamburgers!
It was clearly an attack. By who is unknown.
Notably this was in 2003 before git (2005) so linux source was in a central bitkeeper repo. So a commit with no associated data about who did it should not have been possible.
Here is a more detailed article. https://lwn.net/Articles/57135/
If you want t see Mr. Torvalds questioning this in the video in the link, go straight to minute 43.
What Mr torvalds is that?
Dad.
good thing he’s not an American citizen
Except he is. He lives in portland now afaik
it’s over
As long as the backdoor is licenced GPL what’s the problem?
This incident will be reported
Wow you people really have nothing meaningful going on in your lives than to blab about 10 year old blah blah blah
You really took the time to comment and complain that you’ve already seen this? You’re… upset that your time was wasted?
Buddy. Cmon.
Who pissed on your chips, Mr. Grumpy?
Yeah I’m guessing the answer would be more colorful based on the historical data we have
Oh man would die to see his reply. It would probably start with something like
“The fact that I have to explain this to a person who works in a national security agency makes me really worried…”
I would pay money to see daddy Linus flip off some big shot intelligence official
Also experience shows that it’s possible to backdoor software in very subtle ways that could go years without anyone spotting them. So if he had decided to he probably could have done it, despite Linux being open source.
https://github.com/corollari/linusrants
This is beautiful. Thank you! lol
Beautiful
It’s like our very own Gordon Ramsay
I somehow misread that as NBA, and was very confused what basketball had to do with OS backdoors
NSA makes
WAY more sense
A OS backdoor is very simular to a backdoor cut, which allows a player to sneak behind defenders when they are focused on the ball or player with a ball.
NBA coaches have taken inspiration from many different places to perfect their plays. Computer security is just another step.
they wanted to cut to the basket behind the defense
Michel jordan want to look at your browser history :D
No, that’s Mark McGwire.
Nope this has Kareem written all over it
Roger Murdock?
I read it NASA at first
I am from the government, I am here to fuck you.
Here’s where Linus did/said the thing. (He is the second person from the right.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gRsgkdfYJ8