A Look Back at the Linux Kernel Backdoor

Posted by the_doctor on Oct 15, 2013 10:50 AM EDT
InfoQ; By Jonathan Allen
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With all of the recent concern over the US government’s National Security Agency (NSA) some of the attention has turn to the possibility of backdoors. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a backdoor is an intentional vulnerability in an operating system or software that allows otherwise unauthorized users to gain access to the system. Back in 2003 someone attempted to insert a backdoor into the Linux kernel. Though caught, it illustrates how seemingly innocuous changes can introduce vulnerabilities and the importance of tractability in source control.

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