I don't fully understand everything. But, apparently, it was only sheer luck and one random guy's persistence regarding a "minor technical issue" that led to the exploit being discovered before it had made it to stable/production servers. https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/backdoor-found-in-widely-used-linux-utility-breaks-encrypted-ssh-connections/ https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/2/24119342/xz-utils-linux-backdoor-attempt
Thanks, @Rachel83az I have a Linux laptop and I was surprised to read that Ubuntu (my OS) was contacted in an attempt to get the "back door" installed in production versions of Ubuntu. I'm also glad they didn't let it happen. I trust those guys.
Ubuntu might have added it, though, if that one guy hadn't found a slight discrepancy during benchmarking. It had already made it to the beta/unstable versions of a couple distros. Someone who knows more about Linux and this kind of thing than I do told me that it was VERY well hidden, only (usually) triggered under very specific circumstances controlled by the hacker, and it looks like it was planned for years.
Some days I think the world won't end with either a bang or a whimper - just with a bunch of dead, hacked computers. Our City had a ransomware attack some weeks ago - and it's paralyzed everything at City Hall - tax payments etc. I'm told there's only one incoming line on the phone switchboard working. Even the bus-time info line is down. I have no idea when or how it will be resolved.
My "Linux person" is half-jokingly saying they'll switch to OpenBSD or FreeBSD. There's also a distro that purposely chooses uncommon software by default. I forget what it's called, but they use something like FreeOffice or OnlyOffice instead of OpenOffice/LibreOffice and so on. And it doesn't use SystemD, though they're also not anti-SystemD. I wish I could remember which distro it is that does that.
Would it possibly be Gentoo Linux? It's without System-D and It uses the Calligra Office Suite, Abiword etc. And web browsers Epiphany, Falkon and Qutebrowser in addition to a couple of "regulars." https://www.gentoo.org/get-started/about/ https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Recommended_applications
Not Gentoo! It's Chimera. https://chimera-linux.org/ https://chimera-linux.org/about/ https://chimera-linux.org/docs/faq
