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Dan O'Dowd Reminds World of UNIX Creator Ken Thompson's Security Stunt

Posted by dave on · 1 comment
LinuxWorld.com
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In a speeech intended to serve us a wake-up call to anyone relying on the "many eyes" that look at the Linux source code to quickly find any subversions, the CEO of Green Hills Software last week reminded his audience how UNIX's creator Ken Thompson installed a back door in the binary code of UNIX that automatically added his user name and password to every UNIX system - a secret he revealed only 14 years later.

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Comments (1)

Mr O'Dowd is a typical example of somebody defending his turf. His company is in direct competition with Linux and his businessmodel is against open source. These might not be good days anymore to try to sell Operating Systems. His argument is that Russians and Chinese programmers should not have the ability to add source code to software used for defense. What is the basis for this security or plain old nationalism? We presume he means because of security. His company sells closed source software, how do we now there are no backdoors, that is secure? We only have his word. In Linux the paranoid can check... And do check. His proof; Ken Thompson added his password to the binary version of Unix, so what do you mean, should we stop buying binary versions of Unix? OK, we'll get open-source software, so Linus Thorvald (That dangerous communist from Finland), can not sneak in his password. Duh, proved the wrong point here. And the remark about the cold war shows what kind of a person he is. Somebody without arguments but with sentiments. Looser.

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