Comment by corty

4 years ago

That question has been obvious for quite some time. It is always possible to introduce subtle vulnerabilities. Research has tried for decades to come up with a solution, to no real avail.

Assassinating the researchers doesn't help.

  • The Linux team found the source of a security threat and have taken steps to prevent that security threat from continuing to attack them.

    You can't break into someone's house through their back window, tell the owners what you did, and not expect to get arrested.

    People don't scream "how are we going to know that people can break into houses through broken windows without these heros!?"

    • Does nobody here even understand what actually happened?

      Really losing my faith in the accuracy of HN if such a huge thread is full of misinformation.

      Basically (as I understand it, feel free to correct me) this is what happened:

      Researcher emailed maintained with flawed code, maintainer LGTMed it, researcher told maintainer that the code is buggy and not to merge it. The researchers confirmed that the code was not merged or commited anywhere. Paper gets published. Nothing of note happens.

      Now, one of the researchers grad students has submitted stuff to linux oh his own volition- he does not appear to be associated with the previous research. These commits are "obviously bad" according to linux maintainers and claim that the grad student is just continuing the "merge bad shit" research. These commits do not appear to be intentionally flawed but rather newbie mistakes (so claims the student)- which is why he feels the linux community is unwelcoming to newcomers.

      Now how on earth did that warp to whatever everyone here is smoking?

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