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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to ssh server compromise (www.openwall.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

You probably are fairly safe. Yeah, okay, from a purely-technical standpoint, your server was wide-open to the Internet. But unless some third party managed to identify and leverage the backdoor in the window between you deploying it and it being fixed, only the (probably state-backed) group who are doing this would have been able to make use of it. They probably aren't going to risk exposing their backdoor by exploiting it on your system unless they believe that you have something that would be really valuable to them.

Maybe if you're a critical open-source developer, grabbing your signing keys or other credentials might be useful, given that they seem to be focused on supply-chain attacks, but for most people, they probably just aren't worth the risk. Only takes them hitting some system with an intrusion-detection system that picks up on the breakin, them leaving behind traces, and some determined person tracking down what happened, and they've destroyed their exploit.