Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Backdoor found in widely used Linux utility breaks encrypted SSH connections | Ars Technica (arstechnica.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

42 comments fedilink hide all child comments

TL;DR there was a backdoor found in the XZ program. All major distros have been updated but it is recommended that you do a fresh install on systems that are exposed to the internet and that had the bad version of the program. Only upstream distros were affected.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I honestly think BSD has the potential to be worse due lack of people. I think the best option is to not be paranoid as a user. If someone needs to be paranoid it is the maintainers.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I think the best option is to not be paranoid as a user.

Yeah, just never be a dissident, or a whistleblower, or an activist, or a member of a vulnerable marginalized group. Remember, if you obey there's no reason to fear being spied on.

I really don't think you understand how serious this kind of backdoor is. It puts certain people in real danger.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

And I don't think you understand OPs point. Of course you should be paranoid as a person like that, but most users aren't targets. If you, as a regular user, get this paranoid about using computers, maybe you should evaluate your priorities.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

If you, as a regular user, get this paranoid about using computers, maybe you should evaluate your priorities.

"Regular user" seems to be a strange counter to all the people I just listed that would be affected here. I'm not worried about myself, I'm worried about the people whose privacy and security is extremely important in this context.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

These people do not seem to be affected unless they run Arch for some reason.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That's only the case because it was caught fast. That was lucky.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Most definitely