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What we know about the xz Utils backdoor that almost infected the world (arstechnica.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 7 months ago (8 children)

Specifically, SSH logins were consuming too many CPU cycles and were generating errors with valgrind, a utility for monitoring computer memory.

Through sheer luck and Freund’s careful eye, he eventually discovered the problems were the result of updates that had been made to xz Utils. On Friday, Freund took to the Open Source Security List to disclose the updates were the result of someone intentionally planting a backdoor in the compression software.

It is lucky that Andres Freund checked and found the issue in valgrind that was maybe intentionally or maybe unintentionally.

https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/29/4

I'm interested in figuring out what happened and more information on the contributor behind the attack.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Everybody keeps saying it was found by luck, but this seems like it was found by a guy who maintains his repository properly and monitors his CPU cycles diligently just to prevent this sort of thing. I guess I would call it lucky he found it so quickly, but it was definitely not found by luck.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago

It's more so lucky that there was someone diligently doing that. It could've easily gone unnoticed had there not been someone like him.

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