Comment by andrewzah
4 years ago
"I suggested this was an attack on critical infrastructure using a university as cover and that this was a criminal/counter-intellgence matter"
There is absolutely zero evidence of this. None. In my opinion it's baseless speculation.
It's far more likely that they are upset over being called out, and are out of touch with regards as to what is ethical testing.
Sure, don't attribute to malice what can be attributed to ignorance. But you have to admit that backdooring Linux would be huge and worth billions.
Yes, Hanlon’s razor is apt but if you read TFA, you can see heavy amounts of both malice and ignorance.
From TFA: “The UMN had worked on a research paper dubbed "On the Feasibility of Stealthily Introducing Vulnerabilities in Open-Source Software via Hypocrite Commits". Obviously, the "Open-Source Software" (OSS) here is indicating the Linux kernel and the University had stealthily introduced Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability to test the susceptibility of Linux.”
GP had a hypothesis and made a prediction based on it. The prediction turned out to be right. What more do you want?
I want proof that the motive was in any way, shape, or form, related to or sponsored by a foreign government under the cover of university research. Not speculation based -solely- on the nationality or ethnicity of the accused.
With the utmost possible respect, 'criminal or counterintelligence' in no way implies the involvement of a foreign government, and trying to allege racism on such flimsy grounds is a rhetorical tactic well past it's sell-by date.
What is their ethnicity? I just assumed they were all American citizens. My previous comment included how U.S. based attackers alleged they did something similar to openbsd's VPN libraries over a decade ago.
Suggesting a foreign government could be leaping to conclusions as well, given domestic activists with an agenda may do the same thing. A linux kernel backdoor is valuable to a lot of different interests. Hence why counter-intelligence should be involved.
However, I just looked at the names of the people involved and I don't know. Even if they were Taiwanese, that's an allied country, so I wouldn't expect it. Who were you thinking of?