Re: Is Open Source safe? [Linux Weekly News]

["Frank O'Dwyer" <fod@brd.ie>]

Martin Minow wrote:
> Frank O'Dwyer <fod@brd.ie> opines:
> >
> >Yes it does, but not quite in the same way. For example, I believe that
> >in days of yore some attackers managed to insert a back door into some
> >DEC OS by breaking into the coding environment (I don't recall the
> >details, does anyone else?).
> 
> <http://www.acm.org/classics/sep95/> describes how the inventors
> of Unix inserted a backdoor into the Unix login program. It's well
> worth reading. However, there is no indication that this trojan
> horse ever shipped to customers.

No, that is a different incident. These were external attackers who
managed to patch the source, and as far as I know it did ship. Could be
an urban myth I guess, but it's clearly a plausible attack.

> >So in other words, not only _could_ this
> >happen with non-OSS, it _has_ happened, and no doubt it happens
> >reasonably often.
> 
> I doubt it.

OK, "reasonably often" is overstating it, perhaps :) 

Cheers,
Frank O'Dwyer.