My mastodon feed is full of IT security specialist talking about the xz affair where someone let a backdoor in some library.

But beside showing the two side of Free/Libre software (anybody can add a backdoor, and anybody can spot it), I have no idea how it impacts the average person. Is it a common library or something used only by specific application ? Would my home-grade router protects me ?

  • sneakyninjapants
    51·
    8 months ago

    How does the xz incident impacts the average user ?

    It doesn’t.

    Average person:

    • not running Debian sid, Fedora nightly, Arch, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, or tbh any flavour of Linux. (Arch reportedly unafffected)
    • ssh service not exposed publicly

    The malicious code was discovered within a day or two a month of upload iirc and presumably very few people were affected by this. There’s more to it but it’s technical and not directly relevant to your question.

    For the average person it has no practical impact. For those involved with or interested in software supply chain security, it’s a big deal.

    Edit:
    Corrections:

    • OpenSUSE Tumbleweed was affected; Arch received malicious package but due to how it is implemented did not result in compromised SSH service.
    • Affected package was out in the wild for about a month, suggesting many more affected systems before malicious package was discovered and rolled back.
    • earmuff@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      5·
      8 months ago

      Not just a day, a full month the backdoor was available. On the Arch Repo, v5.6.0 was uploaded on February 24th. Will be similar to other repos.

    • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
      84·
      8 months ago

      I don’t even understand what anyone in this thread is saying.

      That’s not an invitation, please don’t explain Linux to me.

      I’m just saying this means nothing for average people.

      • hperrin@lemmy.world
        8·
        8 months ago

        It could have meant a lot to the average person if it wasn’t caught. If this was some adversary, they could have used it to cripple critical infrastructure in the largest cyber attack in history.

        Luckily it was caught before this software was rolled out to really anything that should be in prod.

        • leave_it_blank@lemmy.world
          3·
          8 months ago

          Isn’t that this Windows imitation I sometimes hear about?

          (I have a death wish I guess)

          But on a serious side: I need an easy to use Linux system next year for my parents who are not very tech savvy. Do you have a recommendation for easy use that feels like Windows? It will only be used for browsing, open office and stuff.

      • earmuff@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        311·
        8 months ago

        It actually means a lot for average people. Only because you are not able to comprehend some things, does not mean you are not affected by it. But feel free to keep on using Windows XP.

    • qaz@lemmy.world
      3·
      8 months ago

      You forgot about OpenSUSE Tumbleweed, it also shipped the infected package. I had to update to a newer non-infected version of xz.

      • sneakyninjapants
        1·
        8 months ago

        I’m almost certain it has no effect on wireguard or openvpn if that’s what you’re asking.