Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751096AbWEPN4H (ORCPT ); Tue, 16 May 2006 09:56:07 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751102AbWEPN4H (ORCPT ); Tue, 16 May 2006 09:56:07 -0400 Received: from 8.ctyme.com ([69.50.231.8]:8348 "EHLO darwin.ctyme.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751096AbWEPN4G (ORCPT ); Tue, 16 May 2006 09:56:06 -0400 Message-ID: <4469D9F5.9030702@perkel.com> Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 06:56:05 -0700 From: Marc Perkel User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.2 (Windows/20060308) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Steven Rostedt CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Wiretapping Linux? References: <4469D296.8060908@perkel.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2243 Lines: 56 Steven Rostedt wrote: > On Tue, 16 May 2006, Marc Perkel wrote: > > >> As most of you know the United States is tapping you telephone calls and >> tracking every call you make. The next logical step is to start tapping >> your computer implanting spyware into operating systems. Since Windows >> and OS-X are proprietary this can be done more easilly with the >> cooperation of Microsoft and Apple. >> >> So what about Linux? With thousands of people working on the Kernel if >> someone from the NSA wanted to slip a back door into the Kernel, could >> the do that? >> > > Well, yes and no. > > It's highly unlikely that it would get into the kernel. Definitely not > kernel.org, since all patches are public. > > But it's not the kernel that you have to always worry about. But it's > what you install. Especially as root. > > There's so much free stuff out there, that people download and install > blindly, that I'm sure if someone wanted to really badly, they could get > it on some boxes. If they were slime and added something to a binary, > and supplied the source without the backdoor, that might last a while. > Unless you compile everything yourself, it's not easy to make sure that > all binaries came from the source you have. > > But there are a lot of hackers out there (the good kind, not the crackers > that the press call "hackers"). And they are aways looking at things > and breaking them to see how they work. > > So, really, I doubt anyone could really get a lot on lots of people's > Linux boxes. But, if we ever had an evil Debian maintainer, that allowed > it, then it might happen. But that would usually be discovered rather > quickly. > > -- Steve > > Thanks for your reply Steve. I've thought it would be discovered but thought I'd ask the question anyway just to make sure. But - do you think if OS-X or Windows had a government hack that it would be discovered. I know it would be discovered as easilly, but I wonder if that would get noticed? - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/