Zack's Kernel News
Zack's Kernel News
![](/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/issues/2024/284/kernel-news/brown_zack.png/841449-1-eng-US/Brown_Zack.png_medium.png)
Zack Brown reports on developer trust.
Developer Trust
In recent days, the infamous "XZ backdoor" has the entire open source world reconsidering its development practices. Essentially, a bad actor joined an open source project, submitted some good patches to gain the trust of the developers, and eventually submitted some cleverly hidden security holes that were actually accepted into the project. It was only when a regular user noticed some odd timing behaviors in the tool and decided to track down the issue that the whole thing came to light.
The open source project was not the Linux kernel, but the tool came very close to being included in many Linux distributions. From there of course, it would have been inside the foundational infrastructure of the entire Internet and almost every corporate network within the known universe.
It's absolutely not the first time this has been attempted, and, of course, there could be any number of similar backdoors that have not yet been discovered. The whole experience has been a wake-up call for the open source world to re-examine their code review practices. For example, one reason the XZ backdoor was able to make it into the project was because the maintainer was overworked and burnt out. So the issue is about more than simply expecting everyone to work harder. We'll be seeing the true effects of this wake-up call for years to come.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.