Episode Details

We're breaking down the attack: how it works, how it was hidden, and why time was running out for the attacker.

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Links:

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• 📻 LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
• oss-security mailing list — Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to ssh server compromise.
• Fedora Announcement
• Debian Announcement
• Ubuntu Announcement
• Kali Linux Announcement
• Arch Linux Announcement
• Gentoo Announcement
• openSUSE Tumbleweeed Announcement
• NixOS Unstable Discussion
• Why does it take two weeks for NixOS to replace xz?
• Andres Freund on Mastodon — I was doing some micro-benchmarking at the time, needed to quiesce the system to reduce noise. Saw sshd processes were using a surprising amount of CPU, despite immediately failing because of wrong usernames etc....
• rwmj on Hacker News — Very annoying - the apparent author of the backdoor was in communication with me over several weeks trying to get xz 5.6.x added to Fedora 40 & 41 because of its "great new features"
• A Microcosm of the interactions in Open Source projects — Make no mistake. This is the way it works. It needs to change.
• Devu